health alert

OFFICIALS WARN ABOUT INCREASED FENTANYL OVERDOSE DEATHS

“Parents are finding their children dead from fentanyl overdoses, boyfriends finding their girlfriends dead, and children are being put at risk by this alarming spike,” said DA Summer Stephan.

Source: San Diego District Attorney

June 21, 2021 (San Diego) -- The top law enforcement leaders in San Diego County are sounding the alarm about a concerning increase in overdose deaths related to fentanyl, especially among younger people. The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, Sheriff’s Department and Police Chiefs’ and Sheriff’s Association are pushing out the warning on social media in an effort to educate youth and parents that if the pill you’re taking didn’t come from a pharmacy, it could kill you.

In 2019, there were 151 fentanyl-related overdose deaths in San Diego County. According to the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office, there were 461 fentanyl-related overdose deaths in San Diego County in 2020, triple the number from the year before. While still early, the projection for 2021 is 700 such overdose deaths. 

The District Attorney’s Office is part of the Narcotics Task Force Team 10, which responds to an average of 5 to 6 calls per week; most of them fatal overdoses and most involving a fentanyl-related overdose. The deaths are occurring in every part of the county and affecting every demographic. 


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CACTUS MICE TEST POSITIVE FOR HANTAVIRUS IN SANTEE AND VALLEY CENTER

By Gig Conaughton, County of San Diego Communications 
Image Credit: shutterstock
 
January 16, 2020 (San Diego) -- Two cactus mice collected separately in routine monitoring in Santee and Valley Center have tested positive for hantavirus, marking the first appearance in San Diego County in 2020 of the potentially deadly virus.
 
County officials said people should never sweep up or vacuum, but use “wet cleaning” methods instead, to clean up rodent droppings or signs of rodent infestation if they find them in their living spaces — homes, garages, sheds, cabins and outbuildings.
 
Infected rodents shed hantavirus in their urine, feces and saliva. If people stir that dry matter into the air by sweeping or vacuuming, they can inhale the virus and get sick.

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FDA'S MEDWATCH SAFETY ALERTS: JANUARY 2013

March 2, 2013 (Washington, D.C.) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently issued alerts or other safety information about a number of products, including metal-on-metal hip implants, which release metal particles into the bloodstream, sleep drugs that reduce morning alertness—especially in women, and a motion sickness drug packaged in error as an iron supplem


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Support community news in the public interest! As nonprofit news, we rely on donations from the public to fund our reporting -- not special interests. Please donate to sustain East County Magazine's local reporting and/or wildfire alerts at https://www.eastcountymedia.org/donate to help us keep people safe and informed across our region.