New Fentanyl Strain Makes Overdoses Harder To Treat

CHICAGO, IL — The Cook County Medical Examiner has warned first responders and the public of an increasing number of deaths from a new synthetic opioid described by the DEA as hundreds of times more powerful than morphine. Called acrylfentanyl, the drug is sold over the internet and shipped from overseas. Medical experts report people who have overdosed on heroin mixed with it and other powerful fentanyl-type drugs required multiple doses of Narcan, also known as naloxone. Sometimes even that isn't enough to revive them.

"In many cases, one dose of naloxone, the heroin antidote, will revive a person who has overdosed on heroin," said Dr. Steve Aks, emergency medicine physician and toxicologist at the Cook County Health & Hospitals System's Stroger Hospital. "But we are seeing people in our emergency department who need increased doses of naloxone – in some cases as many as four doses – for the patient to be stabilized after ingesting fentanyl, or a heroin/fentanyl combination."

Aks said such synthetic opiods are "thousands of times stronger" than street heroin and much more likely to be fatal. "The EMS and emergency medicine community needs to be aware of the potential need for additional naloxone in such cases.”

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There has been a sharp increase in deaths associated with fentanyl and fentanyl analogs like acrylfentanyl over the past two years, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.

“Just one dose can easily stop a person from breathing, causing immediate death,” said Dr. Ponni Arunkumar, Cook County’s Chief Medical Examiner.

In 2015, 649 people in Cook County died, in whole or in part, because of an opiate-related overdose. That number rose more than 68 percent to 1,091 people in 2016. More than half of those deaths involved fentanyl or fentanyl analogs, according to the medical examiner's office.

Last year, only seven such deaths were attributed to acrylfentanyl. But between January and April 8 of this year alone, 44 people's deaths were attributed to the drug. That number could rise pending toxicology results, the Cook County Medical Examiner's office said.

Lake County Coroner Howard Cooper reported the area's first acrylfentanyl-related overdose death in Febrary of this year.

Acrylfentalyl has no medical purpose but is not specifically prohibited under law, although the DEA says it can be treated as a fentanyl analog under existing regulations.

It can be purchased online for $35 a gram or $12 a pill, according to an ABC7 investigation.

The DEA says fentanyl and acrylfentanyl come primary from China, which banned its production and sale just over two months ago.

Top photo | Fentanyl laced heroin from March 2017 drug bust | Patch File