by CNN
Fatal overdoses involving fentanyl have surged in recent years in the US, and new research shows that deaths among children have increased significantly, mirroring trends among adults.
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. More than half of those deaths occurred in the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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.
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.