Opioid abuse: 92 ODs, with 14 fatal, reported in Monroe in January

In January, Monroe County had 92 overdoses from an opioid, and 14 of the individuals died, according to data compiled by law enforcement agencies throughout the county.

The overdoses were broken down by city or town, and residents may not have overdosed in their town, according to the Monroe Crime Analysis Center. Information about the opioid — whether it was a pharmaceutical, heroin or fentanyl — was not available.

Data compiled by law enforcement and sent to the Monroe Crime Analysis Center is unofficial. Official data come from the Monroe County Office of the Medical Examiner, but it can take months for information about cause of death to be determined. The medical examiner has yet to release overdose statistics for 2017.

Police have said they need real-time data to track hot spots. As part of the Monroe County Heroin Task Force, city and town police and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputies who respond to an overdose are using a standard form to record information about the victim and any evidence about the seller.

While a few departments were using the form throughout last year, most started in the summer. As a result, comparisons particularly to early last year may not be accurate. Nevertheless, Monroe Crime Analysis reported 32 overdoses, with nine fatalities, for January 2017.

On Feb. 7 during a news conference to announce the task force, Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley said there had been 112 overdoses and 17 fatalities to that point in 2018. She did not have a breakdown by month. But given the January numbers analyzed by the Monroe Crime Analysis Center, that would mean 20 overdoses and three deaths in the first seven days of February.

The county's population is about 750,000.

READ: Law enforcement overdose data for 2017

At the time, Doorley said the number and location of overdoses would be public, but she did not have a time frame. The January data was obtained independently by the Democrat and Chronicle.

READ: Overdoses challenge towns

Analysis from the Monroe Crime Analysis Center for January shows:

Overdoses among residents of the city, Gates, Irondequoit, Penfield, Greece, Ogden, Fairport, Brighton, Pittsford, Sweden, Webster;

Of the 60 overdoses in the city, 46 were among city residents, nine lived outside the county, and the others were from Greece, Irondequoit and Gates;

The youngest person was 19, the oldest was 64, and the average age was 35;

67 overdoses were by males and 25 by females;

72 overdoses were among white people, 13 were among African-Americans and 7 were among Hispanics.

Narcan, which can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, was used 63 times. It was not known how many of those successfully reversed the overdose.

Locations of the fatalities were not part of the information obtained by the Democrat and Chronicle.

PSINGER@Gannett.com