New step to protect against ODs: Hamilton County offers fentanyl test strips
Hamilton County Public Health is now offering opioid users a way to test their drugs for the deadly synthetic opiate fentanyl.
The health department's mobile syringe exchange program, The Exchange Project, will provide fentanyl test strips, which advocates say can prevent some overdoses.
“Anything we can do to give people another chance at life and another chance to get into treatment is worth the effort,” said Hamilton County Health Commissioner Tim Ingram.
The health department recently secured a $75,000 grant for its syringe-exchange program from the 20-county health nonprofit Interact for Health, some of which is to fund the strips, said Interact spokesperson Emily Gresham Wherle.
A February 2018 study from John Hopkins University found 70% of respondents –people recruited from Baltimore, Boston and Providence who use drugs – reported they would change their behavior knowing their drugs tested positive for fentanyl. They might inject the drugs more slowly, use only when with someone who has the opioid-overdose antidote naloxone, or perhaps, not use at all.
Caracole, a nonprofit that provides HIV services in the region, has been distributing the strips on its mobile testing van since November.
The agency has handed out more than 750 strips since it began carrying them in November 2018. Suzanne Bachmeyer, associate director of prevention, said as people have become more familiar with the strips, they've asked for more. Caracole has reciprocated, giving them more.
Dennis Cauchon, president of Harm Reduction Ohio, said about a month ago he was "surprised" by the length of time it took the Hamilton County health department to get the strips. The county "has been progressive in other ways," he said, but other Ohio cities, including Columbus, Cleveland and Portsmouth, were already offering them.
"There’s no doubt that the strips would benefit the Cincinnati area and it would almost certainly save lives, especially since fentanyl has migrated outside of the heroin and opiate supply," he said.
Fake ecstasy and other pressed-fentanyl pills sold as prescription opioids were among adulterated street drugs in the region during an overdose surge in May.
People who use drugs other than heroin should be aware that the strips can be used on other drugs, such as meth and cocaine, said Daniel Raymond, deputy director of planning and policy for the Harm Reduction Coalition in New York City.
"The powerful thing that we’ve seen with fentanyl test strips is it makes that sense of risk concrete to people," he said. "It goes from a hypothetical, ‘Oh these are just scare tactics or urban legends,’ to actual, tangible proof that fentanyl is something to be concerned about.”
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The Northern Kentucky Health Department does not provide the strips at its Syringe Access Exchange Programs now. But it will take part in a new study with the University of Kentucky to determine whether the strips are effective in curbing overdoses.
One piece of the study will evaluate how Covington and Newport syringe-exchange clients use the strips, as part of an $87 million grant the university received in April, said Laura Brinson, public health impacts administrator for the Northern Kentucky Health Department.
The four-year Healing Communities Study has the goal of reducing opioid overdose deaths by 40 percent in 16 Kentucky counties.
If the study shows the test strips are effective, "funders may be more likely to support their use, which is one of the reasons why this study is so important," Brinson said.
Places to find fentanyl test strips
Caracole: Its mobile testing van travels throughout Hamilton and Butler counties, as well as one location in Northern Kentucky, to provide free HIV testing, fentanyl test strips and other resources.
View the van's schedule at https://www.caracole.org/page/testing-in-the-community.
Caracole, in partnership with Hamilton County, will open July 11 as a site-based syringe exchange and operate on Thursdays from 5 to 7:30 p.m.
Hamilton County Public Health: The health department's syringe-exchange van travels throughout Greater Cincinnati to trade sterile syringes for used ones, hepatitis C testing, fentanyl test strips and other resources.
View the van's schedule at https://www.hamiltoncountyhealth.org/harm-reduction/exchange/.