“The U.S. is “beginning to turn the tide” on the opioid epidemic, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said Tuesday, pointing to new federal data showing a slight dip in overdose deaths last year.
Preliminary CDC data released last week shows drug overdose deaths, which spiked in 2017, dropped 2.8 percent toward the end of last year and the beginning of 2018.
“The seemingly relentless trend of rising overdose deaths seems to be finally bending in the right direction,” Azar said in prepared remarks at the Milken Institute’s health care conference in Washington, D.C.
CDC Director Robert Redfield cautioned that his agency’s numbers are preliminary but said they are encouraging.”
Read more at: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/23/opioid-crisis-health-secretary-932332
Source: Politico.com – October 23, 2018
