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CDC records highest-ever drug deaths in a 12-month period

Early data shows that that spike in overdose deaths has accelerated during the pandemic.

From left, clockwise, Catalyst Twomey, Jamaal Henderson, Noble Henderson and Billy Boyer lay down roses, which represent people in Philadelphia who died of drug overdose in 2018, outside the Federal Courthouse in Center City, Philadelphia on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2019. Protesters gathered outside the courthouse while the backers of Safehouse, the nonprofit aiming to open a first-of-its-kind supervised injection site in Philadelphia, were in court for a hearing before a judge, who will decide whether what they propose is illegal. (Heather Khalifa/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)
From left, clockwise, Catalyst Twomey, Jamaal Henderson, Noble Henderson and Billy Boyer lay down roses, which represent people in Philadelphia who died of drug overdose in 2018, outside the Federal Courthouse in Center City, Philadelphia on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2019. Protesters gathered outside the courthouse while the backers of Safehouse, the nonprofit aiming to open a first-of-its-kind supervised injection site in Philadelphia, were in court for a hearing before a judge, who will decide whether what they propose is illegal. (Heather Khalifa/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)Read moreHEATHER KHALIFA / Staff Photographer

Between May 2019 and May 2020, 81,230 Americans died of drug overdoses — the highest number of drug deaths ever recorded in a 12-month span, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

After a drop in 2018, overdoses began increasing again in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the CDC said in an advisory published last month. But early data show that spike has accelerated during the pandemic, with the largest overdose increases taking place between March and May — when the first lockdowns began.

The CDC said the jump in overdoses is largely driven by synthetic opioids like fentanyl, which is significantly more powerful than heroin. The agency urged local and state health departments to expand the use of naloxone, the overdose-reversing drug; make treatment more readily available; and track overdose outbreaks more effectively.

Advocates have raised concerns about the need to keep people in addiction safe from both the coronavirus — to which people with opioid addiction are particularly vulnerable — and overdoses.

In an Inquirer article last year about the rising overdose toll in Philadelphia and around the country, Northeastern University professor Leo Beletsky said lockdown measures must be designed with people who use drugs in mind, making sure they can access overdose-reversal drugs, treatment, and economic and social support so they can safely stay home. He added that many response measures are “lacking” in that respect.

CDC Director Robert Redfield told MedPage Today in a statement that the “disruption to daily life” during the pandemic has “hit those with substance use disorder hard.”

”As we continue the fight to end this pandemic, it’s important to not lose sight of different groups being affected in other ways,” he said. “We need to take care of people suffering from unintended consequences.”