However, San Francisco only recently began testing for xylazine, and health officials called the recent identification “concerning.”
“These facts suggest that the drug may not yet be in widespread use, but SFDPH and its city and community partners are working to learn more, share information and prepare street response teams to recognize the effects of xylazine and respond appropriately ‘ officials said in a press release on Thursday.
In each of the four overdose cases where xylazine was found, fentanyl was also present. Preliminary data from the San Francisco Chief Medical Examiner’s office, which examined the four bodies, shows that fentanyl, the main cause of the city’s overdose crisis, was responsible for 72% of all overdose deaths last year.
The tranquilizer has been found for years in other cities hit hard by the opioid crisis, including Philadelphia, its “national-level epicenter,” according to Hom, who previously headed a drug use prevention unit at that city’s health department.
Philadelphia health officials first discovered xylazine around 2014, after the arrival of fentanyl, Hom said. Fentanyl, on the other hand, began dominating San Francisco’s drug supply around 2018.
“The East Coast saw the arrival of fentanyl a few years before us here in San Francisco, and they saw xylazine a few years after fentanyl,” Hom said. “Given that we are now seeing large amounts of fentanyl in our drug supply, this is about the time we might see xylazine.”
Xylazine intoxication can resemble an opioid overdose, such as B. slowed breathing and decreased heart rate. But xylazine isn’t an opioid, so naloxone — the drug used to reverse opioid overdoses — is largely ineffective as an emergency treatment.
However, medical experts say that naloxone should still be given in a suspected xylazine overdose because fentanyl is also likely to be present.
“People trained in naloxone should be reminded that the goal of overdose reversal is to restore breathing, not necessarily restore full consciousness,” health officials said.
