U.S. overdose deaths double in past 16 years

The number of Americans dying from drug overdoses jumped by more than 200 percent in the past 16 years, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said.

Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of injury-related death in the country, according to a report released by the CDC last week.

More than 52,000 Americans died of a drug overdose in 2015, 211 percent higher than the 16,849 people who died of overdoses in 1999 and double the 25,785 who died that way in 2003, the data showed.

Overdose deaths have spiked particularly in nonmetropolitan, rural parts of the country, where the number of deaths has jumped 325 percent over the past 16 years.

Opioid use, which has skyrocketed since the turn of the century, is to blame for much of the increase, said the agency's researchers.

Drug use in the United States has risen more precipitously among those over the age of 26, and especially among those over the age of 35.

The soar in the number of prescription drugs including opioids provided to patients has led to more use of illicit drugs like heroin, fentanyl and methamphetamines in the United States, according to a TheHill news daily report.

On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump declared the epidemic of abuse of pain-killing opioids a public health emergency.