The opioid epidemic claims the lives of 115 Americans each day, the new statistics published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to the researchers, from 2015 to 2016, opioid-involved deaths increased in males and females and among persons aged ≥ 15 years, whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians/Pacific Islanders, Los Angeles Times reported.

The opioid overdose death rate increased by 27.9 percent just one year, between 2015 and 2016. In 2015, there were 10.4 opioid overdose deaths per 100,000 people.

There were three “waves” in the epidemic of opioid overdose deaths, according to the CDC researchers. The first wave began in the 1990s, a result of prescription pain medications. The second wave followed in 2010, marked by fatal overdoses of heroin.