Following a relative plateau around 16,000 deaths per year, prescription opioid overdose deaths shot up 16% in 1 year to 18,893 deaths in 2014, Rose Rudd, MSPH, of the CDC, and colleagues reported in Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report. Heroin deaths also continued to jump, reaching 10,574 that year, up from about 8,000 in 2013. The latest rate is nearly three times the heroin overdose rate in 2010, the CDC said.

Source: Opioid Overdose Deaths Keep Rising | Medpage Today