More than 5,000 children and teens have died from overdoses involving fentanyl in the past two decades, according to data published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics.
There were about 1,550 pediatric deaths from fentanyl in 2021 -- over 30 times more than in 2013, when the wave of overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids started in the US.
SEE ALSO | 'Gummies, candies, cookies': State Crime Lab opens, sees critical levels of fentanyl in many items A surge that began in 2018 led to a nearly 3-fold increase in deaths among older adolescents and a nearly 6-fold increase among children younger than 5. In 2021, 40 infants and 93 children ages 1 to 4 died from a fentanyl overdose.
Since 1999, however, the vast majority of pediatric deaths from fentanyl have been among teens ages 15 to 19."With older teens, the the way the poisonings occur is similar to what happens with adults. It's recreational drug use, and then they either intentionally taking fentanyl or it's being cut into the drugs that they're using," said Julie Gaither, assistant professor of pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine, who wrote the new research letter.
For younger kids, it's harder to get a handle on what is exactly happening inside the home -- the most common place that overdose deaths occur -- but it's often related to drugs that are left within reach.
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