Fatal overdoses in New York City have spiked 66 percent over the past five years, according to a report released Tuesday by the city’s health department. Eighty percent of these deaths involved an opioid-based drug, including heroin, fentanyl, and prescription medication.
In 2015 alone, the city recorded 937 deaths from unintentional overdoses.
The dramatic increase in overdose deaths among the city’s Latino residents — many of whom live in the Bronx — is particularly troubling to city officials.
The report found a 51 percent jump in heroin overdoses among Latino New Yorkers from 2014 to 2015. And in the Bronx, fatal overdoses involving the dangerous opioid fentanyl were double the rate of any other borough. In total, the Bronx had a 46 percent increase in overdose deaths just over the last year.
“We are especially concerned about overdose deaths in the Bronx, and will intensify our efforts to expand access to life-saving medications, such as naloxone, in the borough,” Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Basset said in a Tuesday press release.
Nearly all of the overdose deaths in the city in 2015 were the result of more than one substance — a deadly trend that doctors are only now learning about.
This data comes months after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a plan to tackle opioid addiction in the state. His legislation promised strict regulation on opioid prescription and increased access to addiction treatment programs.