More than 70 fall ill from a massively suspicious overdose near Yale University as drug deaths hit a record in the United States

A new report He estimated that a record 72,000 Americans died last year from drug overdoses, an increase of about 10 percent, the Centers for Disease Control said on Wednesday.

Drugs, particularly fentanyl, are now more lethal in the US UU That HIV, car accidents or firearms, according to the report.

Deaths from synthetic opioid overdoses increased sharply, while deaths from heroin, prescription opiate pills and methadone declined, according to the C.D.C. estimated.

In October, Donald Trump called the US opiate epidemic a "public health emergency," giving officials additional powers to deal with the crisis.

However, Trump failed to announce a complete "national emergency", as he had previously suggested, which would have meant new central funding.