The opioid epidemic in America seems to be getting worse with each passing year. According to a report published by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the nation's hospitalization rate directly linked to opioid misuse has risen about 30 percent, which is an alarming figure bar none.
This data was pulled from from the third quarter of 2016, through to the same timeframe in 2017. This increase in opioid-emergency visits has been persistent throughout the nation, with some parts of the country experiencing harrowing gains, while others are showing signs of a decline.
The American Midwest saw an unprecedented 69.7 percent surge in opioid-related overdoses, which is a direct result of Wisconsin's 109 percent spike.
Furthermore, overdoses increased 40.3 percent in the West, 21.3 percent in the Northeast, 20.2 percent in the Southwest, as well as 14 percent in the Southeast.
Director of the CDC Anne Schuchat reveals that she and her team "saw, sadly, that in every region, in every age group of adults, in both men and women, overdoses from opioids are increasing." This data may not be a indicative of the epidemic as a whole, as many individuals who experience an overdose are not always admitted into urgent care facilities.
Schuchat further admits that "we think that the number of people addicted to opioids is relatively stable. But the substances are more dangerous than five years ago. The margin of error for taking one of these substances is small now and people may not know what they have."