KUALA LUMPUR, June 6 — More studies need to be done to determine the number of deaths caused by drug overdose in the country as the figures could be on the rise, a forum was told yesterday.
National Anti-Drugs Agency principal assistant director (medical treatment) Dr Ravi Ramadah said there was only one study done so far to tabulate figures of Malaysians who had non-fatal drug overdose.
In 2010, 460 people who injected drugs were recruited in Klang Valley in 2010 to assess health outcomes associated with injection drug use. The study was conducted by Universiti Malaya.
All 460 participants used opioids and 20 per cent of them had non-fatal overdose six months prior to the study while 43.3 per cent had overdosed before.
“Those numbers don’t fall in the mortality report unless the direct cause of death is drug overdose,” Dr Ravi said at the forum on health and criminal justice outcomes for the incarcerated.
“This is something we want to work on so we have the data and we can have a more accurate estimation of cases in the country.”
Dr Ravi cited the 2016 World Drug Report that said there were about 207,400 drug-related deaths in 2014 involving drug users between 15 and 64-years-old.
Some 700 of those deaths were in the United States and were related to fentanyl use between 2013 and 2014.
However, only nine per cent of the data was collected in the Asian region.
“We are certain the numbers shown is an underestimation. We need to observe how serious the problem is in Malaysia,” Dr Ravi said.
The New York Times reported yesterday that drug overdose deaths last year most likely exceeded 59,000, the largest annual jump ever recorded in the US.
Basing it on preliminary data compiled by the daily, it stated the death count was the latest consequence of an escalating public health crisis — opioid addiction. It is now made more deadly by an influx of illicitly manufactured fentanyl and similar drugs.
It estimated 62,500 deaths would be a 19 per cent increase over the 52,404 recorded in 2015.
“Drug overdose is now the leading cause of deaths among Americans under 50, and all evidence suggests the problem has continued to worsen this year,” said the report.
