Deaths caused by the synthetic opioid fentanyl soared 11-fold between 2011 and 2016, new CDC data reveal.

The rise started slow - climbing slightly from 1,600 deaths in 2011 to 1,900 in 2013 - before doubling every year.

In 2016, 18,335 people were killed by the drug, which is up to 100 times stronger than heroin.

The new CDC report, published today, reveal men are hardest hit, dying at triple the rate of women.

In recent years, rates have risen sharpest among Hispanic and black Americans, and particularly among young people aged 25 to 34.

Fentanyl deaths have soared, as the overall CDC data (left) show. Men are dying at triple the rate of women, another graph shows (right)

In recent years, rates have risen sharpest among young people aged 25 to 34

Fentanyl took hold of America in the grips of the opioid addiction epidemic.

After decades of hyperactive opioid prescribing, US clinics had produced a generation of Americans hooked on highly addictive pills.

While many got their fix from their doctors, those who could not get or afford more prescriptions turned to the street - to heroin and street-sold prescription pills.

That alone drove fatalities.

But increasingly, police and the Drug Enforcement Agency started detecting a new, powerful kind of drug claiming people's lives.

Fentanyl is a supremely powerful alternative to heroin; just a couple of milligrams could be lethal to an adult male.

The rise quarter-by-quarter shows how steadily fentanyl took hold of the US

Overdose rates are highest among whites but are increasing faster among Hispanic and black Americans

FALL OF THE FAMILY THAT PUSHED OPIOIDS ON U.S.: GALLERIES REJECT DONATIONS FROM FAMILY OWNERS OF OXYCONTIN On Wednesday, the National Portrait Gallery in London became the first major art institution to give up funds from the controversial Sackler family. On Thursday, the Tate galleries in the UK followed suit, announcing they will no longer seek donations from the family, which has 'given generously to the Tate in the past.' Members of the Sackler family are facing lawsuits over their alleged role in the US opioid crisis. Campaigners say the move from the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) to give up the grant is a landmark victory in the battle over the ethics of art funding. The decision has been hailed as a 'powerful acknowledgement' that certain sources of income should not be justified. The family, whose company Purdue Pharma LP produces opioid prescription painkiller OxyContin, had been set to provide a £1million donation to the gallery. But photographer Nan Goldin, who became addicted to OxyContin after an operation, vowed to pull her upcoming exhibition with the gallery if they accepted the donation. Advertisement

It was a handy alternative for drug traffickers who produce the stuff: heroin relies on the growth of poppies, and is subject to environmental hiccups. Fentanyl is made in the lab, quicker and cheaper.

Drug tests and autopsies over the last few years revealed the drug was gradually being cut into everything - from cocaine to Percocet - as well as being sold straight for addicts who has built up tolerance to heroin's effects. Fentanyl, addicts say, breaks through their barrier.

For most, its strength is unfathomable, and overdoses are common.

The new CDC data hammer that home, and show how swiftly the drug took hold of the US.

On a graph published in the report, the lines for deaths related to oxycodone, morphine, hydrocodone, and methadone all snake steadily at the same level, claiming between one and two deaths per 100,000 between 2011 and 2016.

Heroin went from killing 1.5 per 100,000 in 2011 to 5 per 100,000 in 2016, in one straight, diagonal line up.

Fentanyl took a unique trajectory. It went from claiming the fewest lives - 0.5 per 100,000 in 2011 - to easily claiming the most, swinging up in a J-shape to 6 deaths per 100,000.

Late last year, the CDC published data on the 10 deadliest drugs, showing fentanyl is the deadliest drug in America, and its potency is driving up drug deaths across the US.

'The drugs most frequently involved in overdose deaths change quickly from one year to the next,' Dr Holly Hedegaard, a medical epidemiologist at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics, said.

Most overdose deaths involve multiple drugs, Hedegaard said.

'A lot of the deaths that mention fentanyl also mention heroin, and a lot of the deaths that mention cocaine also mention fentanyl,' she said.

According to a report published in early December by the University of California, San Francisco, most people who consume fentanyl do not actively seek it out. There is no fanfare about the drug, as there is for others like cocaine and heroin.

Often, it's cut into other drugs - drugs which can be taken in larger quantities without it being lethal.

But even a pinch of fentanyl can push them over their high and into a coma.