Drug overdoses in the United States have reached a new record high, with almost 108,000 Americans dying from overdoses in 2022, according to the final federal figures released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday. This marks a continuous rise in the number of overdose deaths over the last two decades, making it the worst overdose epidemic in American history.

The official number for 2022 was reported as 107,941, showing a 1% increase from the nearly 107,000 overdose deaths in 2021. Although earlier provisional data had estimated more than 109,000 overdose deaths in 2022, the final numbers are limited to U.S. residents.

While the female overdose death rate declined for the first time in five years, the male overdose death rate continued to rise, accounting for about 70% of U.S. overdose deaths. The overall drug overdose death rate saw a small increase from 2021 to 2022, which was not considered statistically significant.

The CDC has not yet reported overdose numbers for 2023, but provisional data through the first ten months of the year suggests that overdose deaths remained stable in 2023.

This alarming trend highlights the ongoing public health crisis of drug overdoses in the United States, calling for continued attention and efforts to address the underlying issues contributing to this epidemic.

In other health news, Medicare can now pay for obesity drugs like Wegovy in certain heart patients, and US surgeons have successfully transplanted a gene-edited pig kidney into a patient for the first time. Additionally, there has been a significant increase in the number of US abortions done by medication, with more than six in 10 abortions in 2023 being medication-induced, marking a significant jump since 2020.