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NOVEMBER 1, 2017

Fentanyl Involved in More Than Half of Opioid Deaths in 10 States

By Marie Rosenthal

More than 50% of people in 10 states who died of opioid overdoses during the second half of 2016 tested positive for fentanyl, according to a new CDC report (Morb Mortal Wkly Rep MMWR 2017 Oct. 27. [Epub ahead of print]).

The report found that out of 5,152 opioid overdose deaths in these states, almost 3,000 cases (56.3%) tested positive for fentanyl, and more than 700 tested positive for drugs that have similar chemical structures to fentanyl, including the fentanyl analog,