A recent study between the B.C Centre for Disease Control and UBC’s Mathematics department has found just how effective Take Home Naloxone kits have been.

Medical Director at the B.C CDC, Dr. Mark Gilbert says, the study found that the kits had a huge impact on preventing fentanyl related overdose deaths in the province.

“And it’s also, I think, important to share that with other places or jurisdictions where they might be resistant to implementing Take Home Naloxone, or have not yet scaled it up.”

Mike Irvine, a post doctoral fellow in mathematics at UBC says the model they developed found for every ten kits that were used, one death was averted.

“We found provincially, that within the first ten months of 2016, 226 overdose deaths were averted.”

Irvine adds, the next phase will have them looking closer at the impacts on specific regions, such as the Interior.