OLEAN, N.Y. — The first reported heroin overdose death of 2017 in Cattaraugus County was reported earlier this month in Portville.

Dr. Kevin Watkins, county public health director, told the Cattaraugus County Board of Health on Tuesday that after declining in the second half of 2016, opiate use inched back up toward the end of the year.

Parts of the county appear to be experiencing an increase in heroin overdoses. Emergency responses are becoming more frequent, Watkins said. Gowanda Ambulance, for example, had four overdose calls in 48 hours.

The unofficial number of heroin and other opiate overdose deaths in the county in 2016 is 10, Watkins said. That is down from 11 in 2015. There was one heroin overdose death in 2011.

As the Cattaraugus County Heroin/Opioid Task Force concluded last year, more in-patient treatment beds are needed, Watkins.

The Cattaraugus County Council on Addiction Recovery Services Inc. (CAReS) has received a $2 million state grant to add about 20 in-patient treatment beds at their existing Weston’s Mills facility.

Addicts may stay there up to a year for stabilization and preventative treatment. CAReS also offers medicated assistance therapy with three different drugs.

“This is good news for us as a community,” Watkins told the board members during a luncheon meeting at Good Times of Olean.

CAReS also expects to begin operation of a crisis hotline soon, Watkins said. In the meantime, an after-hours crisis hotline is available after 7:30 p.m.

The public health director noted Erie County had filed a lawsuit against several drug companies it accused of misleading physicians about the long-term problems associated with opiate addiction. More counties are expected to join the lawsuit and Cattaraugus County may want to consider it, he said.

County attorney Eric Firkel said he would look into the lawsuit and what damages the county may have experienced due to the increasing number of individuals with opioid addiction.

“I don’t know how you put a price on a life,” said county Legislator Susan Labuhn, D-Salamanca.

The county attorney suggested that an overdose death represented a loss to a family rather than a loss by the county.

Firkel said he assumes State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman was looking at the overdose issue for a class-action lawsuit against the drug companies on behalf of the state and counties.

Also on Wednesday, Watkins observed influenza is “widespread throughout the county and New York state. Four deaths have been reported from the flu across the state. None of those deaths was in Cattaraugus County, he said.

A large number of individuals have come to the Olean General Hospital emergency room with a flu-like illness. There have been several laboratory-confirmed cases of influenza in the county, Watkins said.

“If you are sick, stay home,” Watkins advised. “And wash your hands frequently.”

Then, the public health director said it’s not too late to get a flu shot. “The flu peaks in February and March, but the flu season can last until May,” Watkins said.

In another matter, senior sanitarian Ray Jordan reported a near drowning in a school pool last month when a female student attempted to swim a lap of the pool underwater. The Health Department oversees swimming pools and swimming areas throughout the county.

While declining to name the school district, Jordan said the lifeguards saw the swimmer drop to the bottom of the pool and immediately pulled her out of the pool. She did not have a pulse when pulled from the pool, he said. The lifeguards called 911 and applied CPR.

Local emergency medical technicians rushed to the school pool and administered oxygen after the swimmer was revived, Jordan said.

She was taken to Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Buffalo for observation and released the next day.

Jordan said the Environmental Health Division was readying a letter to send to swimming pools and swimming areas on hyperventilation prior to underwater swimming and holding one’s breath for a prolonged time “is a dangerous activity.”

The American Red Cross, he said, has recommended all aquatic facilities should “actively prohibit hyperventilation.”