Fentanyl-Linked Deaths: The U.S. Opioid Epidemic’s Third Wave

On Morning Edition Thursday, WBUR’s Martha Bebinger discusses the soaring death toll due to fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that can shut down breathing in less than a minute. Public health experts are calling this the third wave of  the nation’s opioid epidemic. The first was prescription pain medications, such as OxyContin; then heroin, which replaced pills when they became too expensive; and now fentanyl. Fatal overdoses involving fentanyl are “rising at an exponential rate,” said Merianne Rose Spencer, a statistician at the CDC and one of the authors of a study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday.

This story is part of a partnership that includes WBUR, NPR and Kaiser Health News.

This story is part of a partnership that includes WBUR, NPR and Kaiser Health News.

from Kaiser Health News https://ift.tt/2FicCNO