The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is awarding this week more than $12 million to 23 states and the District of Columbia, including more than $300,000 to Connecticut, to support their responses to the opioid overdose epidemic.
The funds will be used to strengthen prevention efforts and better track opioid-related overdoses. Connecticut had 917 deaths due to accidental drug overdoses last year, 853 of them due to opioids, of which 483 were due to fentanyl, according a report last week by CT News Junkie citing figures from Connecticut Chief Medical Examiner James Gill.
Increased funding for opioids in the fiscal year 2017 Omnibus Appropriations bill is allowing CDC to support all states that have applied for funding through the Enhanced State Surveillance of Opioid-Involved Morbidity and Mortality (ESOOS) program and the Prescription Drug Overdose: Prevention for States (PfS) program.
Under the ESOOS program, $7.5 million will go to 20 additional states and the District of Columbia to better track and prevent opioid-involved nonfatal and fatal overdoses. Connecticut will be awarded $315,539 under ESOOS.
This cooperative agreement already provides funds to 12 states to develop and adapt surveillance systems to address the rising rate of overdoses attributable to opioids, including a specific focus on heroin and synthetic opioids such as illicitly manufactured fentanyl.
Under the PfS program, $4.8 million will go to an additional eight states. They join the 14 PfS states that received funding last year, including Connecticut, which will receive $946,585, the same amount it received in fiscal 2016.
