Among those who refuse to go to hospital following reversal, the risks of a poor outcome in the short term appear to be low. Other efforts to prevent deaths from overdose include increasing access to naloxone and treatment for opioid dependence.Drug use contributes to 500,000 deaths worldwide, with opioid overdose resulting in approximately 115,000 of these deaths in 2018. This is up from 18,000 deaths in 1990. In 2018, approximately 269 million people had engaged in drug usage at least once, 58 million of which used opioids. Drug use disorders have affected around 35.6 million people worldwide in 2018. The WHO estimates that 70% of deaths due to drug use are in relation to opioids, with 30% being due to overdose. It is believed that the opioid epidemic has partly been caused due to assurances that prescription opioids were safe, by the pharmaceutical industry in the 1990s. This led to unwarranted trust and a subsequent heavy reliance on opioids. Though there are treatment interventions which can effectively reduce the risk of overdose in people with opioid dependence, less than 10% of affected individuals receive it. Signs and symptoms
Opiate overdose symptoms and signs can be referred to as the "opioid overdose triad": decreased level of consciousness, pinpoint pupils and respiratory depression. Other symptoms include seizures and muscle spasms. Sometimes an opiate overdose can lead to such a decreased level of consciousness such that the person will not wake up.
Additional treatment may include sodium bicarbonate for metabolic acidosis, and hemodialysis or hemodiafiltration to remove methanol and formate from the blood. Folinic acid or folic acid is also administered to enhance the metabolism of formate. History
There are cases of methanol resistance, such as that of Mike Malloy, whom someone tried and failed to poison by methanol in the early 1930s.In December 2016, 78 people died in Irkutsk, Russia from methanol poisoning after ingesting a counterfeit body lotion that was primarily methanol rather than ethanol as labeled. The body lotion, prior to the event, had been used as a cheap substitute for vodka by the impoverished people in the region despite warnings on the lotions bottles that it was not safe for drinking and long-standing problems with alcohol poisoning across the country.During the COVID-19 pandemic, Iranian media reported that nearly 300 people had died and over a thousand became ill due to methanol poisoning in the belief that drinking the alcohol could help with the disease. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration discovered that a number of brands of hand sanitizer manufactured in Mexico during the pandemic contained methanol, and urged the public to avoid using the affected products. See also
Ethylene glycol poisoning

References


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