Across the nation, the opioid crisis remains a threat to communities.
One constantly changing danger is the other substances mixed in with illegal opioids.

Xylazine is a drug used to tranquilize animals—not safe for human use. In recent years though… illicit opioids have been laced with the ‘tranq’.

“The typical phrasing that's used is that xylazine gives fentanyl legs,” said M.D. Greg Swartzentruers, an addiction medicine physician with UPMC. "So it might make it.. kind of accentuate its effects or prolong the effects.”

A side effect of xylazine is severe skin wounds, that if left untreated, can become infected and lead to amputation or death. The drug was not linked to opioid deaths at all in 2017. Now?

“Pennsylvania has seen a 50% increase in the number of xylazine related overdose deaths in just one year, from 2022 to 2023,” said Dr. Debra Bogen, Secretary of Health for Pennsylvania. 

In response to the growth of these symptoms—the PA Health Department talked with community health groups on how to help people avoid permanent or fatal injury from the wounds. The result was a project to purchase, organize, and distribute 50,000 wound care kits to addiction centers across the state.

“The Department's wound kits consist of items needed to properly clean, moisten and cover the wounds,” described Bogen. Eight boxes full of the kits were stacked to her left at a press conference today, where she announced the distribution of the kits and highlighted the need for them.

Centers can send kits home with patients, who might avoid getting treatment for their wounds as they continue to battle addiction.

“We're able to now have people come in, even if they're not quite ready to treat their addiction. We can still help them with the wound management and then all the while building the relationship with the patients and then hopefully that they would consider taking treatment for their addictions,” said Theresa Cellers, Community Health Initiatives Director for UPMC.

The kits, which will be free, are one way healthcare professionals are responding to new trends in a decade’s old crisis.

“Now we offer in-patient, outpatient, mobile; all, you know, trying to meet the patient where they're at,” said Cellers.

The Health Department is also working to get more training out to healthcare facilities about xylazine and how to help Pennsylvanians experiencing it’s side effects in their addiction.