The Min­istry of Health is warn­ing the pub­lic, af­ter 300 vials of fen­tanyl were re­port­ed miss­ing fol­low­ing a de­liv­ery dis­crep­an­cy to a pub­lic health fa­cil­i­ty.

The po­tent syn­thet­ic opi­oid, sup­plied as fen­tanyl in­jec­tion 0.05mg/ml/2ml am­poules, was dis­cov­ered un­ac­count­ed for on Au­gust 6.

In a state­ment is­sued yes­ter­day, the Min­istry of Health said it has launched an ur­gent in­ves­ti­ga­tion, and is con­duct­ing site in­spec­tions at dis­patch and de­liv­ery points, ver­i­fy­ing de­liv­ery and stock records, and re­quest­ing re­ports and video footage from the fa­cil­i­ties in­volved.

Fen­tanyl, used un­der strict med­ical su­per­vi­sion in hos­pi­tals, can cause se­vere res­pi­ra­to­ry dis­tress and death in even tiny amounts.

“This is a se­ri­ous mat­ter,” the min­istry said, urg­ing the pub­lic to avoid any con­tact with the drug. “Pos­ses­sion, use, or dis­tri­b­u­tion of fen­tanyl with­out prop­er au­tho­ri­sa­tion is il­le­gal and dan­ger­ous.”

Any­one who en­coun­ters or is of­fered fen­tanyl is asked to con­tact the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice im­me­di­ate­ly. The min­istry is al­so work­ing with the TTPS and the Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty to un­cov­er how the vials went miss­ing and to pre­vent a re­peat in­ci­dent.