US LIFE EXPECTANCY DROPS

WASHINGTON: Life expectancy in the US dropped yet again as drug overdose deaths continued to climb – taking more than 70,000 lives last year – and suicides rose, a government report said yesterday. The drug overdose rate rose 9.6% compared with 2016, while suicides climbed 3.7%, said the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Centre for Health Statistics. As a result, the average life span in America dropped to “78.6 years, a decrease of 0.1 year from 2016,” said the report. The data comes as the US grapples with an opioid epidemic, fuelled by addiction to prescription painkillers as well as street drugs. – AFP