FRIDAY, Feb. 22, 2019 (HealthDay News) — U.S. opioid overdose deaths have quadrupled in the last two decades, and the highest rates are now seen in eight Eastern states, a new study shows. Those states are: Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire and Ohio. The researchers also found that the death rate from… Read More: Opioid OD Deaths Quadruple, Centered in 8 States »
We’re in the midst of an opioid overdose epidemic in the U.S., and the synthetic opioid fentanyl has now surpassed heroin and oxycodone as the leading cause of overdose deaths. In 2016, fentanyl was involved in nearly 30 percent of drug overdose deaths, accounting for more than 18,300 deaths that year.1 It’s a sharp rise… Read More: Fentanyl Is Now the Leading Cause of All Overdose Deaths »
Alcohol misuse accounted for 35,823 deaths in 2017, an increase of nearly 46 percent over almost two decades, according to a Washington Examiner analysis of mortality data. The data, which come from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, show that alcohol-related deaths have climbed steadily from the 19,469 deaths recorded in 1999. Deaths from… Read More: Alcohol deaths climbing, men twice as likely to die »
The parents say by not publicly acknowledging the two deaths, the agency is intentionally downplaying the severity of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM), a disease that paralyzes healthy children in a matter of hours. “I feel like they’re just sugar-coating this,” said Katie Bustamante, whose son Alex, age 6, died in May. “It eliminates my trust… Read More: Parents accuse CDC of not reporting children's deaths from polio-like… »