Because there is a fentanyl emergency in Italy too
Fentanyl, the powerful opioid that kills over 150 people a day in the United States, has caused the Ministry of Health to raise the alarm level in Italy too. Here's what the numbers and experts say
In the United States it has been a social plague for years. It is called fentanyl and being 100 times stronger than morphine and 50 times stronger than heroin it is one of the most powerful opioids. In the last two years it has been responsible for more than two-thirds of the 100,000 overdose deaths in the country, as well as the leading cause of death under the age of 50.
Having become known in Italy also through the TV series that tell the story of the silent massacre , it attracted the attention of the Ministry of Health, which raised the alert on fentanyl-based pharmaceutical preparations to level 3, i.e. the maximum.
THE MINISTRY'S ALERT
As reported by several news agencies, the Ministry of Health, following a specific recommendation from the Coordination Unit of the National Early Warning System (Snap) of the Department for Anti-Drug Policies , has sent a level 3 alert with the request to strengthen supervision of medicines and pharmaceutical preparations containing fentanyl and its derivatives.
The request is twofold. On the one hand, pharmacies, hospitals and pharmaceutical depots are called upon to monitor possible thefts of this type of medicine, on the other hand healthcare workers must raise their attention threshold in case patients present themselves with typical symptoms associated with the consumption of these substances (euphoria , sedation, confusion, drowsiness and others).
The ministry also calls for monitoring of the illicit market, where "fentanyls are sold as 'legal' replacements for other illicit opioids and, 'without users' knowledge, are mixed with or sold as heroin and other illicit opioids.' ”, like cocaine.
Ambulances are then advised to ensure the availability of naloxone (in the form of an injectable solution and nasally) as an antidote to be administered in the event of a fentanyl overdose. A remedy which, however, is useless if the opioid has been taken in combination with other substances, as observed in research conducted by the University of California and published in the journal Addiction , which also states that the proportion of deaths from overdose in United States involving both fentanyl and stimulants rose from less than 1% in 2010 to 32% in 2021.
THE CHINESE SHADOWS ALSO IN EUROPE
In the United States, where the Biden administration has declared fentanyl a “national emergency” because it is the main culprit in overdose deaths , it is also a source of geopolitical tensions with China , as authorities believe Beijing is the largest supplier of the drug. powerful opioid that arrives in the US through illegal routes from Mexico.
But since 2012, "the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction has also recorded a significant increase in the availability of fentanyls on the illicit market following the massive production of these molecules in China and their sale online".
The White House, meanwhile, has also issued an international alarm on the possible spread of illicit fentanyl and the European Union, Snap reports , has been formally involved in the communication flows through a specific alert.
THE (PROBABLY UNDERESTIMATE) DATA ON FENTANYL IN THE EU
However, the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (Emcdda) has reported the production of these molecules in illicit laboratories also in Europe , at the same time as a significant increase in the number of deaths associated with the consumption of fentanyls in people who used drugs.
In 2021, EU Member States reported 137 fentanyl-related deaths to the Observatory, recorded in Germany (88), Lithuania (18) Austria (9), Denmark (6) Finland (6), Estonia (4), Slovenia (2), Portugal (2) Hungary (1) and Latvia (1). However, it should be noted that this may be an underestimate.
“A significant portion of these, however, are thought to be associated with fentanyl diverted from licit channels of distribution for medical use rather than illicitly produced fentanyl,” the Observatory says.
This means, concludes the note, that "even if the diffusion of fentanyl in Europe is currently relatively limited, this substance still represents a potential threat capable of significantly influencing European health and safety in the near future".
AN ACTION AT EUROPEAN LEVEL
Last September, the Commissioner for Internal Affairs, Ylva Johansson, also raised the fentanyl alarm in Europe and for this reason announced that she had agreed with the other institutions on a new mandate for the Observatory, "so as to have better controls, better evaluations of risk, and real-time updates on the evolution of the situation".
One of the main problems for the EU, in fact, is the difficulty of understanding the extent and scope of a phenomenon that escapes controls because, as Johansson explained, "5 kilos of fentanyl can kill 2.5 million people, more than the entire population of Latvia” and “traveling with 5 kilos of fentanyl is very easy”.
Johansson finally underlined that the substance "is produced here by us" and "is available especially in the Baltic countries".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/perche-anche-in-italia-e-emergenza-fentanyl/ on Tue, 20 Feb 2024 14:33:44 +0000.