Sacramento Bee-

In what could be the first sign of a rising threat, public health officials estimated more than 5,000 Californians died from fatal drug overdoses last year. The number of reported deaths to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention leaped by 5.3 percent, and officials say heroin and the powerful narcotic fentanyl is partly to blame.

The CDC’s figures outstripped previously reported numbers by the California Department of Public Health, which said there were 4,200 confirmed deaths at the end of the year. The CDC did not break down the cause by substance but the state’s data show that two out of every 10 cases involved fentanyl — a 50 percent jump from the year before.

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