Death rates from a heart inflammation condition spiked among young American adults over a two-decade period between 1999 and 2020, according to a new study that blamed this increase on the opioid crisis.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association on Dec. 13, 2023, examined mortality trends in the United States owing to infective endocarditis (IE)—an inflammation of the lining of the heart valves or chambers that can be fatal. The disease is triggered when germs, typically bacteria, from other parts of the body enter the bloodstream and attack the lining of the valves or chambers.
