19627556-mmmain.jpg

Heroin and fentanyl overdoses killed 12 people in six days recently in Cuyahoga County, the medical examiner's office said.

(File photo)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The number of people killed by heroin, fentanyl or a mixture of both drugs continues to climb as 12 people died within a recent six-day period.

Eight men and four women died of overdoses from March 30 to April 4, the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office said in a statement released Thursday.

The victims ranged in age from 21 years old to 64 years old. Ten of the victims were white and two of the victims were black.

This is the fourth time in recent weeks that the county has has reported a cluster of overdose deaths from the drugs. Thirteen people died from March 10 to March 14, 10 people died from March 17 to 21, and six people died from March 23 to March 27, the medical examiner's office said last month.

Fentanyl killed 998 people in Ohio from January 2014 to May 2015, according to a report released last month by the Centers for Disease Control. The report also concluded that fentanyl is responsible for the majority of recent overdose deaths and is continuing to kill people in large batches.

Fentanyl-related deaths are outpacing heroin deaths and spiked to record levels last year in Cuyahoga County, leading officials to label it a public-health crisis.

The drug claimed 89 lives last year in Cuyahoga County. It killed 37 people in 2014 and just five in 2013, the medical examiner's office said.

Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opiate analgesic, is often prescribed after surgery or to people who suffer from chronic pain or illnesses. It is occasionally mixed with heroin to give the user the illusion that they've purchased a stronger grade of heroin.

Drug dealers have been selling a pill form of fentanyl as oxycodone because it looks similar and is cheaper. That can lead to overdoses because fentanyl is significantly more powerful than oxycodone and heroin, officials said.

The county prosecutor's office spent $250,000 in the past two years to educate the community and schoolchildren on the dangers of heroin and fentanyl.