According to CDC records, In the United States, overdose deaths surpassed 47,000 last year which is a rise of nearly 7% in comparison to the cases registered the previous year.
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Forty-seven thousand people died from overdoses in 2014, mainly as a result of heroin and other opioids.
The count includes deaths involving powerful painkillers, sedatives, heroin, cocaine and other legal and illicit drugs.
Deaths from drug overdoses have surged across the U.S. to record levels, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC said 61% of the deaths involved some type of opioid, including heroin.
“The increasing number of deaths from opioid overdose is alarming”, said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H.
The report says: “There is a need for continued action to prevent opioid abuse, dependence, and death, improve treatment capacity for opioid use disorders, and reduce the supply of illicit opioids, particularly heroin and illicit fentanyl”.
The use of synthetic opioids, like illicitly manufactured fentanyl, coincided with reports from law enforcement warning of increased availability of the drug. Providing health care professionals with additional tools and information-including safer guidelines for prescribing these drugs-can help them make more informed prescribing decisions. But drug companies and even some officials at the Federal Drug Administration have pushed back at the effort.
“The rate of drug overdose deaths increased significantly for both sexes, persons aged 25-44 years and above 55 years, non-Hispanic whites and non-Hispanic blacks, and in the Northeastern, Midwestern, and Southern regions of the United States”, the report continued. “[It’s] devastating American families and communities”.
The latest CDC report shows that deaths from natural opiates such as morphine, codeine and semisynthetic prescription pain killers like oxycodone and hydrocodone has increased 10% from 2013 to 2014 with deaths from heroin overdoses increased by 26%.
Recommendations ranged from working to better track prescriptions, and marking the overdose antidote drug, known as Narcan, more widely available.
Many abusers of painkillers shift to using heroin as it becomes harder to obtain the prescription medications.
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Death due to drug overdose is very high in five states, namely, Ohio, Kentucky, New Mexico, West Virginia, and New Hampshire. However, at high doses, it can also slow breathing.
