You are here:
Assessing Polysubstance Overdoses An Expanded Biosurveillance Strategy for Public Health Practice
Citation:
Task Force, A. Assessing Polysubstance Overdoses An Expanded Biosurveillance Strategy for Public Health Practice. Association of Public Health Laboratories, Silver Spring, MD, 2023.
Impact/Purpose:
There is a critical lack of laboratory data that definitively identify substances that result in overdoses causing individuals to seek life-saving medical treatment. Biosurveillance—the analysis of clinical specimens, such as blood and urine for the purpose of public health surveillance—provides important exposure information not available in existing epidemiological, emergency medical services (EMS) and seized drug data. While strides have been made in expanding opioids biosurveillance, a significant gap remains in surveillance for non-opioid substances, or mixtures of substances, implicated in overdoses.
Description:
Assessing Polysubstance Overdose: An Expanded Biosurveillance Strategy for Public Health Practice serves as guidance for public health agencies interested in developing and implementing an effective and impactful non-fatal polysubstance overdose biosurveillance program in their jurisdiction. This Expanded Strategy provides background information on polysubstance overdoses, collaboration and outreach efforts, analytical recommendations for polysubstance testing, and important considerations for the management, interpretation and dissemination of non-fatal overdose polysubstance biosurveillance data. Public health agencies should review the original Model Opioids Biosurveillance Strategy for Public Health Practice and this Expanded Strategy in conjunction with other state and local laws, regulations and policies to develop plans specific to the needs of their jurisdictions.
URLs/Downloads:
https://www.aphl.org/aboutAPHL/publications/Documents/EH-Expanded-Polysubstance-Overdose-Biosurveillance.pdf