双语早读|美国药物滥用对人口造成“毁灭性影响”
美国药物滥用问题已经成为一个严重的公共卫生危机。据美国有线电视新闻网(CNN)10月11日报道,最新数据显示,美国滥用药物致死人数每月仍在增长。美国疾病控制与预防中心国家卫生统计中心的最新估算显示,在截至5月的12个月内,超过11.2万人死于药物过量,较前一年增加了2700多人。哥伦比亚大学流行病学教授凯瑟琳·凯斯称,2023年美国药物滥用致死人数仍然呈上升趋势,“这无疑表明药物滥用对人口健康的毁灭性影响”。
Supplies for patients at OnPoint NYC are pictured at the newly formed nonprofit that operates a overdose prevention center in the Harlem borough of New York on Feb 8, 2022. [Photo/Agencies]
There were 112,024 overdose deaths in the 12-month period ending in May, compared with 109,261 in the 12-month period ending in May 2022, a 2.5% increase.
Dr. Katherine Keyes, a professor of epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, noted that the increase is leveling off.
“We still have an extraordinary number of overdose deaths that is orders of magnitude higher than we’ve seen in previous years,” she said. However, “the increase that we [saw] in 2021 has slowed down.”
Overdose deaths spiked 30% between 2019 and 2020 and rose another 15% between 2020 and 2021, according to the CDC.
“There were extraordinary increases in 2020 and 2021 that have started to flatten out in 2022 – now going into 2023. They’re not declining yet,” Keyes said. “But the pace of the increase is certainly slowing.
"So that is both good news and indicative of a continuing public health crisis.”
Keyes highlights that these small accumulation of overdose deaths are still putting 2023 on track to be another devastating year amid the drug epidemic.
“It’s still slightly higher than previous 12-month periods. So, it certainly still indicates just a devastating impact on population health,” she said.
Certain states – particularly in the western United States – have seen steep increases in deaths in comparison with national totals.
Washington had the highest increase: more than 37% from the year ending May 2022 to the year ending this May, from 2,373 to 3,254.
来源:中国日报网英语点津
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