The number of fentanyl deaths among children and teens has increased 40-fold over the past two decades, according to shocking figures.
Analysis of official overdose data shows that in 1999 there were only nine fatalities from fentanyl among those aged 20 and under. But by 2021, this had risen to 1,550.
The increase has pushed the death rate from 0.05 fentanyl deaths per 100,000 young people to 1.92 – or an increase of 3,740 percent.
Dr. Julie Gaither, a pediatrician at Yale School of Medicine who conducted the analysis, called on parents to hide any medications or drug residues that may have been laced with fentanyl.
This includes keeping drugs in cabinets out of the reach of children and cleaning surfaces where drugs have been used, such as mirrors or counters. She also said more homes should stock up on naloxone, an over-the-counter drug that can reverse a fatal fentanyl overdose.
The graph above shows how the number of deaths from fentanyl (yellow line) has increased in the US in children and adolescents under the age of 20
Lydie and Boris Lavenir, from Guadeloupe – a French island – never imagined that they would put their 19-month-old daughter Enora down for a nap and she wouldn’t wake up (left). Seven-month-old babu girl Zhuri Sade Bogle, who died of a fentanyl overdose in January
Fentanyl is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and extremely deadly – with just two milligrams capable of killing an adult.
Many black market drug suppliers mix it with other drugs such as heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine, so users do not know they are taking it.
In recent years, several deaths have been reported involving children who ingested the drug after touching contaminated surfaces.
Last month, it was revealed that 19-month-old Enora Lavenir died after ingesting fentanyl while staying at an Airbnb property in Florida.
Her parents sued the company for advertising the property as ‘peaceful’, arguing that it was regularly used as a party house.
Dr. Gaither warned in the magazine JAMA Pediatrics“Findings from this study suggest that the pediatric opioid crisis is changing in ways that make it more difficult to combat.”
Common sense solutions (e.g. safe storage and disposal) are still needed to prevent childhood exposure to opioids.
“But more emphasis is needed on harm reduction strategies, including treating parents and adolescents for opioid use disorders and improving access to naloxone in homes, where most pediatric deaths from fentanyl occur.”
For her research, she searched the CDC database for opioid deaths in individuals age 20 and under between 1999 and 2021.
Deaths were converted to percentages per 100,000 to account for population growth.
Overall, there were 13,862 opioid deaths among young people, of which 5,194 (37 percent) were with fentanyl.
The majority of fatalities (89.6 percent) were among adolescents aged 15 to 19 and children aged 0 to 4 (6.6 percent).
Fentanyl users lay passed out in the dirt, while a third sits unconscious in full view of the Capitol building in Sacramento, California, on Capitol Mall itself. The state capital isn’t immune to the homeless and drug problems plaguing US cities, while solutions on the ground look flimsy
About 87.5 percent of fatalities were unintentional, while 43.8 percent occurred while the child was at home.
Over the two decades covered by the research, the opioid epidemic in America has shifted to a fentanyl crisis.
The opioid crisis began in the 1990s when pharmaceutical companies began aggressively marketing opioid painkillers as a safe and effective way to treat chronic pain.
The companies convinced doctors that the risk of addiction was low, prompting them to write prescriptions for millions of Americans.
Many patients eventually turned to the black market to continue using the drugs after becoming addicted, with many turning to heroin as a cheaper and more accessible alternative.
The fentanyl crisis began in the early 2010s when the powerful sedative was mixed in the US with other synthetic opioids to increase their potency.
But this also made the drugs much more dangerous, as even small amounts can be deadly, increasing the risk of death from taking the drugs.
The data showed that deaths from fentanyl and all opioid drugs among young people remained fairly stable until 2013, around the time fentanyl began appearing in the U.S. drug supply.
But they have since risen more than 30 times, with the rise being attributed to the drug’s increasing use on the black market.
In 1999, there were 175 deaths from opioids, including fentanyl, in children and adolescents. But by 2021, this had risen to 1,657.
The fentanyl-linked share increased from five percent to 94 percent during that period.
In terms of mortality rates, those for children under the age of four increased sixfold between 2018 and 2021 – from 0.1 to 0.69 fentanyl deaths per 100,000 fatalities.
In 2021, fentanyl was responsible for the deaths of 40 infants and 93 children aged one to four years.
For adolescents aged 15 to 19, the percentage tripled from 1.67 to 6.51 over the same period.