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Manchester, Nashua See Number Of Overdoses Drop For Second Consecutive Month

Narcan, also known as naloxone, is an anti-overdose drug.
Paige Sutherland for NHPR

Overdose numbers in Manchester and Nashua declined for the second month in a row.

Manchester saw 24 overdoses, one fatal, in the month of April. There were 22 overdoses in the city of Nashua.

American Medical Response - Manchester, which compiles the monthly statistics, noted an increased use of people using Narcan, which reverses an overdose, before first responders arrived on the scene. 

In January of this year, 20 percent of Manchester overdoses had layperson Narcan administered. That rate was 38 percent in April.

Credit AMR-Manchester
Monthly overdose numbers for the city of Manchester.

In Nashua, 16 percent of January’s overdoses had layperson Narcan administered. In April, that rate was 27 percent.

The number of visits to Safe Station also decreased through the month of March.

Advocates and experts say they’re still trying to understand why the overdose numbers have continued to decline during the pandemic.

Daniela is an editor in NHPR's newsroom. She leads NHPR's Spanish language news initiative, ¿Qué Hay de Nuevo, New Hampshire? and the station's climate change reporting project, By Degrees. You can email her at dallee@nhpr.org.
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