Washington (AFP)

Overdoses have precipitated the first major decline in life expectancy in the United States since the AIDS epidemic in the early 1990s, according to statistics released Wednesday. Americans have lost almost four months of life expectancy since 2014.

"This is the first big decrease since 1993, at the time it was mainly due to the AIDS epidemic," says AFP senior author Renee Gindi, a statistician at the National AIDS Center. Health Statistics (NCHS).

An American born in 2017 could expect to live 78.6 years on average, against 78.9 years in 2014, according to this report which confirms figures published previously. This translates into nearly four months less.

It is certainly much higher than at any other period of history. Until the 1960s, life expectancy was less than 70 years.

But the recent decline illustrates the public health emergency created by drugs and opiates, a fortiori synthetic opiates, such as fentanyl, including a few milligrams, sprinkled in tablets mimicking drugs and easily sent by a seller in an envelope , are enough to kill. 32,000 people died last year, according to provisional figures.

The United States is ranked 28th among OECD countries for life expectancy. The difference is four years with France (82.6 years).

Overdoses, but also suicides and the rising death toll of Alzheimer's disease, are responsible for the erosion of life expectancy, which is much more marked in men than in women.

Between 1992 and 1993, at the peak of the AIDS epidemic, life expectancy had fallen sharply, the equivalent of what has been observed in the country in recent years.

At the time, says Renee Gindi, "it was resounding, it showed that we had to deal with a problem that, like today, was killing people in younger age groups."

- Racial inequalities -

Overdoses affect all age groups, but the most affected are 25 to 44 years old.

By 2018, the number of overdoses appeared to be stabilizing in the United States, according to separate and preliminary figures recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The exact figure of life expectancy in the United States for the year 2018 will be published in November.

The US government compiles detailed statistics by "race" or "origin," and inequalities remain glaring, both yesterday and today.

Blacks (74.9 years) live three and a half years less than whites (78.5 years) and nearly seven years younger than Hispanics or Latinos (81.8 years).

The "Hispanic paradox" is that these people live longer, despite a lower socio-economic level than white Americans. Researchers have suggested that this could be linked to immigration, which would select individuals in better health.

The report released Wednesday provides an update every year on the long-term health trends of the American nation.

For example, the number of Americans living without health insurance, after falling sharply during Barack Obama's term, has been on the rise since 2016, the year before Republican Donald Trump came to power. In 2018, 13.3% of US adults and 5.2% of minors were uninsured.

We also observe that for the past fifteen years, one in ten Americans has taken at least five prescription drugs; it is mainly the sixties and older. But among 45-64 year olds, two-thirds now take at least one drug.

© 2019 AFP