Opioid Overdose Death Rates Rising Among Black Americans everydayhealth.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from everydayhealth.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Fatalities tied to synthetic opioids and illegal fentanyl climbed 38.4 percent in the 12 months ending in May 2020, compared with the same period ending in May 2019, according to the CDC. The spike in overdose deaths tied to these substances was even steeper in several parts of the country, almost doubling in 10 Western states.
In addition, overdose deaths involving psychostimulants such as methamphetamine increased by 34.8 percent, exceeding the total number of fatalities involving cocaine. Overdose deaths from cocaine climbed 26.5 percent, likely due to combined use with illegally manufactured fentanyl or heroin, the CDC reports.
There are likely several reasons why drug overdose deaths have surged since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, says Alana Vivolo-Kantor, PhD, lead health scientist at the division of overdose prevention at the CDC in Atlanta. These include a larger supply of illegal drugs, reduced access to addiction and overdose treatment, and
Dr. Joy Henningsen works as a diagnostic radiologist at Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center. She received the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on December 17 along with other personnel at the facility. The Birmingham VA Medical Center received some of the first shipments of the vaccine in the U.S.
Henningsen decided to share her story in a first-person article she wrote for
Business Insider because of her experiences interpreting chest and lung images of patients with COVID-19. She noted that while as a radiologist she s not on the front lines in caring for COVID-19 patients, she sees the damage caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus through their images.