Opioid-related overdose deaths declining; former head of Chicago Public Health explains CDC data

CHICAGO (WLS) -- There is significant progress being made in the fight against drug overdoses and deaths across the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released preliminary data showing a nearly 24% drop nationwide in opioid-related fatalities.

The ABC7 I-Team spoke exclusively with the former commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, Dr. Allison Arwady, who is now with the CDC and touting the substantial strides made over the past year in the opioid epidemic.

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While those numbers look promising, Arwady said she is hopeful public health commitments President Donald Trump made during his first term continue.

Arwady shepherded Chicago through the worst public health crisis in recent history during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now she leads the Injury Center at the CDC with a laser focus on opioid overdoses and deaths.

"This is a topic that we know people care about, regardless of their politics, regardless of where they live," Arwady said.

The CDC released new provisional data showing a significant decrease in opioid deaths from October 2023 to September 2024 that's nearly 24%, which equals about 27,000 fewer deaths year over year.

Arwady said those strong improvements are being seen locally thanks to CDC funding and Chicago public health advocates on the ground.

"I really cut my teeth at the Chicago Department of Public Health in terms of the innovative work that we were doing in substance use prevention, even back, you know, almost 10 years ago, I will tell you that both Illinois and Chicago are seeing these same declines, the good declines in terms of overdose death," Arwady said.

She also explained national drug death data is collected by the CDC with trends shared to public health experts and law enforcement to stay abreast of ever evolving poisonous drug cocktails.

"Every single month when I was in Chicago, we would use this CDC funding to look in a lot of detail about exactly where were overdoses happening, exactly when were overdoses happening, how were those patterns changing," Arwardy said. "And on the public safety side, they're using those same changing patterns that we're seeing in in humans to inform the intelligence on how to work on continuing to intercept the drug supply."

However, advocates on the frontlines say those improvements are barely visible in their clients.

John Werning is the Executive Director of Chicago Recovery Alliance, a group providing clean needles, Narcan drug testing strips and overdose training to users in the city.

"We're serving, you know, traditionally, the most vulnerable populations, people of very little means lower socioeconomic, marginalized communities, historically disenfranchised, disinvested communities, and we know that those folks are the most likely to experience overdose, and so far, that has remained the same," Werning said. "Yes, there's a reduction of 24% to 25%, but... we still have 86,000 people dying a year from overdose, right? Reportedly, that's still a crisis, that's still an epidemic."

As severe cuts to government staff and services continue, both he and Arwady are wary of the possibility of funding being revoked.

"It would be really worrisome to me, as someone who saw when I was in Chicago how critical that funding was from CDC for turning the tide on overdoses in Chicago," Arwady said. "We've seen that now that I'm at CDC all over the country, and we've got to double down on what we know works. This does not have to be the leading cause of death. I don't even think it has to be one of the leading causes of death, but we have to keep up the public health investments for the public health emergency."

Arwady also stressed to the I-Team significant progress has been made since President Trump declared opioid related deaths a public health crisis during his first term and she is hopeful this vital funding continues.

More information can be found on the Illinois opioid dashboard and the CDC's website.