Drug overdoses in the United States soar: CDC

Drug overdose deaths rose dramatically in the United States and set a new death record in the year ending May, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

The CDC’s health alert network released a report on Thursday indicating that 81,230 drug overdose deaths occurred during this period as of June 2019.

“This represents a worsening of the drug overdose epidemic in the United States and represents the largest number of drug overdoses in a 12-month period on record,” the agency said.

The CDC noted that “after declining 4.1% from 2017 to 2018, the number of overdose deaths increased by 18.2% from the 12 months ending June 2019.”

Drug overdose deaths were already on the rise before the start of 2020, but accelerated once the COVID-19 pandemic is blocked, according to the CDC.

Synthetic opioids were the main source of the increase in overdose deaths, the agency continued, and that “the number of synthetic opioid deaths over 12 months was up 38.4% from the 12-month period. ending in June 2019 compared to the 12 months ending in May 2020. ”

The CDC recommends expanding the use of naloxone, a drug that treats overdoses in emergencies, and that people should take overdose prevention classes.