Middle-aged American women are dying from overdoses of prescription painkillers at ‘skyrocketing’ rates, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
These deaths are occurring five times more frequently in 2010 than they were in 1999, it warns.
‘Mothers, sisters and daughters are dying from prescription drug overdoses more than we’ve ever seen,’ CDC director Tom Frieden said on Tuesday.
The CDC previously reported that deaths from overdoses of prescription opioid painkillers had exceeded those of cocaine and heroin combined.
More than 6600 women died from a prescription painkiller overdose in 2010, which is more than twice the number dying from cervical cancer, the new report said.
The fastest-growing age group is women 45-54, it said.
– Read the entire article at Sky News.
