A new set of statistics from the DuPage County coroner is cause for concern.
Opioid deaths in DuPage have risen by 53 percent in the past year. In 2016, there were 78 total deaths, with 36 from heroin, 16 from fentanyl, and 26 from a mixture of the two.
In 2015, the total number of opioid deaths was 51. While the numbers for heroin deaths stayed the same for both years, there was a 100 percent increase in the number of fentanyl deaths, and a 370 percent increase in deaths resulting from a combination of fentanyl and heroin.
Will County saw more than a 40 percent increase in opioid deaths in that same time.
Naperville News 17’s Kim Pirc reports.