WHEELING, W.Va. — There has been a slight increase in overdoses in the Wheeling area.
An overdose alert was issued to residents on Thursday by the Wheeling-Ohio County Emergency Management Agency.
Philip Stahl, public information officer with the Wheeling Police Department, said they work with EMS to notify the public whenever there’s been three or more overdoses within a 24 hour period.
“We can go through stages where they happen maybe every other week and then we go through a really long dry spell based on the criteria that there has to be three in a 24 hour period,” he said.
When Thursday’s text alert was issued, there were three overdoses that happened in that time frame.
Stahl said the notification is just one way to help combat the drug epidemic by keeping the public informed and prepared.
“We send out a notification to those who have signed up and hoping that somebody knows somebody that might be suffering from addiction to check in on them, maybe have Narcan available that’s through the health department,” he said.
EMS will arrive on scene first, contact Wheeling police and fire departments and then officers will keep a log of how many overdoses have happened.
Stahl said they’re also able to alert residents about out-of-state drug activity.
“If we see larger metro areas — Cleveland, Columbus, Pittsburgh just for an example — if they see a possible spike in overdoses, we also have sent out a possible prediction of there might be overdoses coming to our area just based on the proximity we are to those cities,” he said.
First responders are encouraging the public to carry opioid reversal drug naloxone and that all overdoses should be reported to 911.