Deaths from consuming adulterated cocaine in Argentina rise to 23

The balance of deaths from consuming adulterated cocaine in Argentina has risen to 23, while ten people remain hospitalized in serious condition and another 20 in mild condition.

Judicial sources cited by the Télam news agency have specified that three other people who have died on the street or in private homes have been added to the 20 deaths registered by the Argentine health system.

“In total there are 30 people admitted,” the Minister of Health of the province of Buenos Aires, Nicolás Kreplak, told a local radio station, detailing that the ten in serious condition need mechanical ventilation.

According to Kreplak, these people have consumed cocaine “that was adulterated with another substance” and that produces “a very, very serious picture.” He has described it as “an overdose of opioids, as if it were an overdose of heroin, which was not what they were consuming, and it is very serious because it can cause respiratory arrest.”

On the other hand, he stressed that the health system “acted very quickly” and that it has been possible to “contain all the patients by finding an antidote to reverse the cases.” In addition, he has pointed out that drug use “is a very complex issue” and has said that these people, “even knowing that what they had consumed had poison, they could not avoid consuming it again.”

The Buenos Aires Ministry of Health maintains the epidemiological alert for hospitals in the province for the treatment of patients with probable opiate intoxication that indicates the application of naloxone to start treatment.