Fentanyl-rainbow fentanyl-xylazine (tranq) fuels the overdose crisis in America; ‘No child should be dying’: Fentanyl-related deaths among kids rising, Yale study says; parents be warned about infants
by Paul Alexander
‘Fentanyl-related deaths among children increased more than 30-fold between 2013 and 2021, illustrating the opioid crisis’ unrelenting impact across the United States, according to a study by the Yale School of Medicine.
Between 1999 and 2021, 37.5% of all fatal pediatric opioid poisonings were caused by fentanyl, according to the study published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. The drug is now the primary agent noted in the pediatric opioid crisis, said Julie Gaither, the study’s author and an assistant professor of pediatrics and epidemiology at Yale.
In 2021, nearly 70,000 U.S. adults fatally overdosed on fentanyl, the biggest spike in overdose deaths in the country’s history. That same year, there were 1,557 pediatric deaths from fentanyl, and 40 infants and 93 children between the ages of 1 and 4 died because of the opioid, according to the study.
“No child should be dying from an opioid,” Gaither said. “It is not just a crisis that is affecting the adult population. It is something that’s affecting everyone in this country, the most vulnerable, even infants.”’
