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Preliminary data suggest that overdose deaths in the United States last year probably decreased for the first time in almost three decades.
On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data showing that nearly 68,000 drug overdose deaths were reported last year. The number of investigations could increase as more investigations are completed, but the agency expects the final total to be less than 69,000.
The number of overdose deaths has increased every year since 1990, reaching 70,000 in 2017.
The figures were celebrated by the US Secretary of Health and Social Services. "Lives are saved and we start winning the fight against this crisis," Alex Azar wrote in a tweet.
But the overdose mortality rate is still about seven times higher than a generation ago.
"We are still in a pretty sad situation that we need to address," said Rebecca Haffajee, a researcher at the University of Michigan.
Researchers do not believe that this is the beginning of a dramatic decline. Data from the first few months of this year will likely show that the decline is not increasing, said Farida Ahmad of the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.
This improvement is due to the decrease in the number of deaths due to heroin and prescription painkillers. These decreases were somewhat offset by continued growth in the number of deaths involving another opioid, fentanyl, as well as other drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamines. Overdose deaths often involve more than one drug.
The improvement is not uniform: some states seem to make spectacular progress, while the number of deaths continues to increase in others. Preliminary data from the CDC suggested that last year's deaths were up to 1,000 or more in Ohio and Pennsylvania – each down about 20%. At the same time, the number of deaths increased by about 17% in Missouri, which recorded more than 200 additional deaths.
Authorities can take months to carry out toxicological tests and other elements of a death investigation involving drugs. And some states report faster than others. The CDC is expected to release more complete data later this year.
The current overdose epidemic has killed more people than any other in US history and it has taken a blistering course. From 2014 to 2017, the number of overdose deaths increased by 5,000 or more each year.
Experts trace the origins of the epidemic until 1995 and marketed the prescription pain reliever OxyContin. It was supposed to be safer and more effective than other prescription opioids, but some patients had the opportunity to hang on and discovered that they could crush the tablets and snort or inject them for become hyper aggressive.
Gradually, many turned to illicit drugs such as heroin and fentanyl. In 2015, heroin began to cause more deaths than prescription painkillers or other drugs. In 2016, fentanyl and its close cousins became the main drug killer. By 2018, they were involved in about 46% of reported overdose deaths, according to preliminary data from the CDC.
Strategies to reduce the number of deaths from drug overdose included strengthening police services, developing treatment programs, implementing policies to limit the prescription of opioid badgesics, and the larger scale distribution of naloxone, an anti-overdose drug.
Haffajee and other researchers are trying to determine the most responsible measures for this slight improvement.
"It's complicated because there are a lot of policies going on and as an evaluator, it's very difficult to separate them and determine which ones work," she said.
Valerie Hardcastle, Administrator of Northern Kentucky University, who oversees research and other work on local health issues, attended the overdose outbreak in her area near Cincinnati. She is convinced that Narcan is a major release of naloxone nasal spray, widely disseminated through the efforts of philanthropists and local, provincial and federal officials.
"It's fantastic that we have fewer deaths, do not get me wrong," she said. "But I'm not sure that indicates that the problem of opioids is diminishing. We simply have greater availability of drugs that will keep us alive. "
Credit: Associated Press (AP) | Photo credit: (AP)
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