Chattanooga hospitals and law enforcement have treated an alarming number of children for illicit drug exposure in recent months, according to Hamilton County Health Department officials.
Between Jan. 1 and May 2, there were roughly 85 emergency room visits in Hamilton County for suspected non-fatal drug overdoses in children younger than 18, according to a news release issued Tuesday from the Health Department. More than half of those were children ages 5 and under, according to the release.
Health Department officials would not say how many children died from overdoses during that period, citing privacy, but said in a news release Monday that there’s also been an abnormal spike in pediatric overdose deaths.
(READ MORE: Drug related deaths spike in Hamilton County)
“In recent years, Hamilton County has never seen an overdose spike like this in young children,” according to the Monday release, which said “the number of overdoses that have occurred in children from suspected fentanyl, opioids or other illicit drugs is a cluster of concern.”