Opioid deaths now lowest in 3 years, but still worse than pre-pandemic

Opioid overdose deaths have dropped to the lowest they have been in three years, new estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest, in the wake of a record surge of fatalities from the class of drugs that includes heroin and fentanyl during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The CDC estimates that there were 75,091 opioid overdose deaths for the year ending in April 2024, according to provisional figures published this week by the agency. 

At its peak over last summer, the U.S. reached more than 86,000 estimated annual deaths. The pace of opioid overdose deaths still remains far worse than before the pandemic, when there were fewer than 50,000 fatal overdoses a year.