PITTSBURGH — Three more people have been declared dead from apparent heroin overdoses since Saturday in Pittsburgh when a health official reported that 14 people had died from heroin overdoses in the past week.

Allegheny County Medical Examiner Karl Williams said Sunday that the growing number of apparent heroin overdoses is a major health crisis.

Williams says that preliminary testing of bags containing heroin stamped with the word “Theraflu” appear to contain Fentanyl. Fentanyl is a synthetic morphine substitute that’s roughly 100 times more powerful than morphine.

It’s been blamed for dozens of deaths around the U.S.

by The Associated Press