DRUG-RELATED DEATHS IN VA. CLIMB, REPORT SHOWS

State Agency's Data Can Help Identify Areas At The Greatest Risk For
Unexpected Deaths

State medical examiners are investigating an increasing number of
accidental deaths that involve drug overdoses, a state report shows.

The details on the drug-related deaths are included in a recently released
report that focuses on 5,821 deaths investigated by state medical examiners
in 2003, the most recent year for which final data is available. That
sample represents about 10 percent of all deaths in Virginia that year.

Drug overdoses were a factor in 563 of the deaths investigated, including
439 accidental overdoses and 114 suicides. Trend data show the rate of
drug-related deaths climbing from about 5.8 drug-caused deaths per 100,000
residents in 1999 to about 8.5 deaths per 100,000 residents in 2003.

The comprehensive report, which looks at such issues as whether alcohol,
drug use or firearms were involved in investigated deaths, is the first of
its kind in 10 years from the state medical examiner's office.

The agency investigates deaths that occur from accidents, violence and
injuries, as well as deaths that occur in unnatural, suspicious, unusual
and other circumstances. State statute spells out what death cases are
investigated.

The data show an overall increase in accidental-death investigations, said
Timothy A. Powell, an epidemiologist in the state medical examiner's office
of the Virginia Department of Health. Powell compiled the report.

The deaths investigated don't represent all accidental deaths in the state,
but they can be used to extrapolate trends, Powell said. "Given this is a
subset of the population," it's an indicator of what is happening more broadly.

The report looks at such factors as what day of the week or month the
deaths happened.

Powell said the data help identify populations at greatest risk for
unexpected deaths, information needed to develop intervention strategies.
For instance, having data on drug overdoses helped justify the need for a
prescription-drug monitoring program for Southwest Virginia.

The program "was one of the responses to the fact that we have had such an
increase in these [drug-overdose] deaths," said Dr. William Massello III,
assistant chief medical examiner for the state's western district.

Some other findings from the report are:

Richmond had nearly twice as many homicides -- 115 -- as the locality with
the second-greatest number, Norfolk, which had 59. Gunshot wounds were the
cause of death in 795 cases, about 13.7 percent of the total cases
investigated. Of those deaths, 338 were homicides and 448 were suicides. In
1,204 cases, the deceased person had detectable levels of alcohol in his or
her blood. Blacks, who are about 20 percent of the state's total
population, were more than 60 percent of the homicide cases investigated.
Males were 70.3 percent, 77.1 percent and 79.5 percent of accident, suicide
and homicide deaths, respectively. Of the 5,821 deaths investigated, 4,143
were male, 1,678 female. Of the 473 child deaths investigated, 204 were
classified as accidents, 62 were homicides, 30 were suicides. Other deaths
were from natural or undetermined causes. Of the child deaths, firearms
were involved in 39 of the homicides and 15 of the suicides. State medical
examiners also investigate sudden, unexpected deaths, deaths when no
physician is present, and deaths of people in custody of law-enforcement
agencies or confined to mental-health facilities.