OVERDOSE ANTIDOTE USE GROWS

The Metropolitan Ambulance Service administered more than 1150 doses
of the powerful heroin antidote Narcan in a five-month period late
last year to treat overdose victims.

And most of the service's 10 MICA paramedic teams have reported a
noticeable increase in heroin overdoses since the beginning of this
year.

Mr Greg Cooper, the MAS manager of clinical support, said Narcan had
to be used at a growing number of heroin overdoses.

``We are averaging about 12 or 13 per day now (overdoses where Narcan
is used), whereas six months ago it was about eight. It's a continual
resource issue for us but it's just one of those things we have to
deal with,'' Mr Cooper said.

The increased Narcan use is yet another sign of the growing heroin
problem.

Between the beginning of July and the beginning of November last year
the central branch of the MAS, based at St Vincent's Hospital in
Fitzroy, administered 221 doses of the heroin antidote. The next
busiest MICA team was Dandenong, which administered more than 70 doses.

Most Narcan used by the MAS is injected into the muscle, often in the
shoulder region, but sometimes ambulance officers inject it into a
user's vein.

Narcan, or naloxone hydrochloride, is known as a narcotic antagonist
because it reverses the effects of heroin or other narcotics in just a
few minutes.

It has no impact on a person unaffected by narcotics, Mr Cooper
said.

``It's a very safe drug. The reaction it has is when it reacts against
the narcotics, and when you are having all the things that narcotics
gives you it takes all those away,'' he said.

At present, the MAS pays $19.45 for each dose of the drug. Because
larger doses are given per injection now, the majority of overdose
victims receive just one Narcan injection after an overdose.

Intensive care ambulances were first equipped with Narcan more than 15
years ago to reverse the effects of morphine. Its original prime use
was not to treat heroin overdoses.

Mr Cooper said drug overdoses represent about 2per cent of MICA
workload - most attendances are for heart problems. About one in five
heroin overdose patients are transported to hospital.