Fentanyl deaths have spiked among U.S. children and teens
The rise in kids’ deaths from the synthetic opioid mirrors what’s happening with adults
Fentanyl, a deadly synthetic opioid, is killing a growing number of children and teens in the United States.
More than 1,500 kids under the age of 20 died from fentanyl in 2021, four times as many as in 2018, says epidemiologist Julie Gaither of the Yale School of Medicine, who will present the data May 1 at the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting in Washington, D.C. The fentanyl deaths account for nearly all of the opioid-related deaths in this age group in 2021.