Presented by: Mbabazi Kariisa, PhD, MPH & Liz Rivera Blanco, MD
Presentation title: Trends and Characteristics of Xylazine Detection in Drug Overdose Deaths and Clinical Considerations
Link to Video
This presentation will provide an overview of the epidemiology of fentanyl-involved overdoses with xylazine detected and/ or co-involved. In addition, Drs. Kariisa and Rivera Blanco will discuss xylazine’s mechanism of action, background, clinical presentation, overdose and withdrawal management, and chronic use complications.
Dr. Mbabazi Kariisa is a Health Scientist in the Division of Overdose Prevention in CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control and serves as a science officer focusing on mortality-related activities for CDC’s Overdose Data to Action program. Her work focuses mainly on drug overdose death surveillance and analysis of data from the State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS). Prior to joining NCIPC, she worked as an injury epidemiologist for the Ohio Department of Health in Columbus, Ohio where she focused on an array of injury-related topics. Dr. Kariisa received her PhD in Epidemiology from The Ohio State University and an MPH in International Health from the University of Michigan.
Dr. Liz Rivera Blanco is a Medical Toxicology Fellow from the Emory University/ CDC program, currently working in the Division of Overdose Prevention in CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC). Prior to joining DOP/NCIPC, she completed a 3- year residency in Emergency Medicine at St. Luke’s Episcopal Medical Center Ponce, Puerto Rico and medical school at Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara in Mexico.