ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) – Winnebago County in northern Illinois experienced a 28 percent increase in drug overdose deaths in 2018.
Coroner Bill Hintz says 159 people died of overdoses, averaging three such deaths per week last year. In 2017, 124 people died of drug overdoses in the county of about 295,000 people, up from 96 overdose deaths in 2016.
Hintz on Tuesday said fentanyl, heroin and cocaine were the three most common drugs found in people who died from a drug overdose. Coroner’s records show fentanyl, an opioid, was found in 102 bodies, heroin in 64 and cocaine in 50.
Hintz estimates about 30 people have died of overdoses in Winnebago County so far this year. He projects if that pace continues the number of fatal overdoses in 2019 might surpass 200.