Overdoses of opioids now make more casualties in the United States than auto accidents: report



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Do you think you are likely to die in an airplane accident or train accident?

Think again. According to a new National Safety Council report on preventable deaths, Americans are more likely to die from an accidental opioid overdose than either of these consequences – and this is even more likely road accident or a simple collapse.

For the first time in US history, Americans now have a one in 96 chance of accidentally dying from an opioid overdose, making it the leading cause of preventable death in the country. The second leading cause, road accidents, has a probability of 1 in 103.

These probabilities are followed by a fall, with a 1 in 1 chance, while the chances of dying in an airplane (1 in 188,364) or in a train (1 in 243,765) are much lower.

The data on opioids are troubling. More than 100 people die every day from opioids, more than 37,000 people a year. The figures also show that 69% of preventable drug overdose deaths involve opioids, with the number of opioid-related deaths having increased by an astonishing 544% since 1999.

This increase is particularly noticeable in women: the CDC found that the rate of opioid overdose in women aged 30 to 64 years had increased by 492% since 1999, the largest increase of any population group . Fentanyl is often the deadliest. Drug overdoses involving drugs increased by 113% each year between 2013 and 2016.

Even worse, with the current government shut down, opioid users are at an even greater risk. Senator Chuck Schumer said The New York Daily News On Sunday, doctors must obtain authorization from the DEA to prescribe at least one anti-opioid drug, buprenorphine. The judgment means that doctors can not access the necessary members of the DEA and are therefore unable to provide the drugs to patients.

"In simple terms, the DEA holds, in many ways, the keys to access essential drugs for the treatment of opioids that patients and physicians in New York and Long Island need to fight this deadly scourge." he explained.

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