ODH director talks about opiates, Zika

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Mosquitoes and drugs were topics of conversation when Ohio Department of Health Director Rick Hodges visited with The Van Wert independent on Monday afternoon.

Hodges, who was appointed health department director in 2014 by Governor John Kasich, has been visiting Ohio counties to discuss the state’s opioid problem, as well as ODH prevention and monitoring efforts related to the mosquito-borne Zika and West Nile viruses.

While heroin and other opiates continue to be a problem for the state, Hodges said his department and other state agencies, such as Attorney General Mike DeWine’s Office, are making the opiate problem their No. 1 priority.

“For a number of reasons, unfortunately, Ohio is the epicenter (of the opiate problem),” Hodges said, noting that the state’s central location in the national transportation system as one reason for the large amount of heroin and other opiates that come into the state.

The ODH director said there have been positive results in one part of the opiate problem, with the crackdown on prescription opiate abuse. Hodges noted that 92 million fewer doses of prescription opiates were abused in 2014, the latest year for statistics, than in 2012.

Unfortunately, the influx of cheap Mexican tar heroin has provided a new drug of choice for many Ohioans — one that communities like Van Wert and others all across the state are struggling to deal with.

Hodges said one positive arising from the state’s opiate situation is a new attitude on the part of law enforcement agencies.

“I think the one really good thing that has happened is that law enforcement has recognized that we can’t arrest our way out of this, so they’re now working with the mental health community (on the drug problem),” he noted.

The change in attitude has led to the formation of DeWine’s heroin task force program as well as a number of local programs, such as Van Wert County Common Pleas Court’s drug court program.

Meanwhile, a new and more potent opiate, fentanyl, is causing problems in a number of Ohio counties, with more than 500 drug overdose deaths in 2014 attributed to the drug, which is 30-50 times more powerful than heroin. That compares to just 84 deaths involving fentanyl in 2012.

According to ODH statistics, overall drug overdose deaths in Ohio increased from 2,110 in 2013 to 2,482 in 2014.

To combat the drug overdose problem, the state is spending an additional $500,000 per year to purchase the life-saving overdose antidote naloxone, as well as the handbook, Health Resource Toolkit for Addressing Opioid Abuse to help Ohio communities combat opiates.

Hodges also said the state has decreased the reporting time for drug abuse data from 18 months to just nine months.

The ODH director also talked about the Zika virus and mosquito-borne diseases, and urged Ohioans to opt for prevention by using insect spray when outside to avoid mosquito bites. Hodges also noted that his department is continuing to monitor mosquito populations around the state (see photo and caption below) in order to increase awareness of the potential problems with mosquito-borne diseases such as Zika and West Nile Virus.

Fortunately, he said, the primary mosquito carrier of the Zika virus is not found in Ohio, although a “cousin” of that insect can be found in the state — further reason for the ODH to continue monitoring the state’s mosquito population.

Currently, cases of the Zika virus in Ohio are travel-related, with those infected returning from countries where the virus is transmitted by mosquitoes and through sexual contact.