I couldn't resist sharing this newly posted graph from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which illustrates the steady rise of poisoning deaths in this country in the first decade of the 21 century
The graph and an accompanying analysis appear in the latest issue of the agency Weekly Morbidity and Mortality Report (MMWR).
The image really speaks for itself. It's impossible to miss that relentless upward trend in poison related deaths from 2000 to 2010. Or to see that that increase is buoyed by drug overdose numbers - and notably overdoses of opioid narcotics.
But in case you were inclined to miss it, the CDC analysts underline the point in number heavy detail as well:
From 1999 to 2010, the number of U.S. drug poisoning deaths involving any opioid analgesic (e.g., oxycodone, methadone, or hydrocodone) more than quadrupled, from 4,030 to 16,651, accounting for 43% of the 38,329 drug poisoning deaths and 39% of the 42,917 total poisoning deaths in 2010. In 1999, opioid analgesics were involved in 24% of the 16,849 drug poisoning deaths and 20% of the 19,741 total poisoning deaths.
This is not, obviously, the first time the agency has warned of this trend. CDC issueda press release to this effect in February, which followed a policy impact report in November 2012, just to name a couple recent red flags. The November report calculated prescription overdose deaths in the United States at 100 per day. Scientists there and elsewhere noted, however, that this alarming upward trend had really begun in the 1990s, then accelerated with the new century.There is some evidence that this trend is starting to slow, in part thanks for such awareness. Areport from the watchdog unit of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, for instance, found that the number of opioid painkiller prescriptions started flattening out over the last year. "This may herald future changes to come," a public health researcher told the paper.Here's hoping.Image: CDC/MMWR
