HIV Cases Surging in Opioid Crisis, Despite Efforts
An outbreak of HIV cases in a rural West Virginia may paint a foreboding future for the rest of a nation trying to grapple with the crisis of opioid abuse.
Cabell County, which nestles the Ohio border, has seen a tally of 74 cases since January of 2018, according to a report from Politico. The vast majority of these cases are the result of needle-sharing by drug users.
Cabell County, which boasts a population of 96,319 as of the 2010 census, has also served as a laboratory in efforts to combat the damaging effects of the growing opioid epidemic in the United States.
According to public health experts, the county has implemented several measures in recent years to curb addiction, such as clean needle exchanges and drug treatment.
The county has also been the focus of federal efforts to curb the epidemic, with the Center for Disease Control working with local officials to screen patients and analyze data.
Despite this, cases are still growing at an alarming rate in the county, albeit at a slower pace than expected, which experts attribute to Cabell’s preparation efforts. The outbreak collides with recent plans from the Trump administration to tackle the ballooning threat of HIV infection.
In his most recent State of the Union Address, President Donald Trump set a blueprint for the virtual eradication of HIV infections by 2030. HIV has been a black cloud over the field of Public Health in the United States for decades, with around 700,000 deaths attributable to the disease.
Plans to combat the spread of HIV infections have become even more complex in recent years due to the convergence of crises with the opioid epidemic. The two are not mutually exclusive, with the sharing of tainted injection tools becoming more commonplace.
The opioid crisis has ravaged states across the country, but nowhere has the epidemic been more prevalent than the state of West Virginia. According to CDC data, the Mountain State saw an overdose rate of 57.8 people per 100,000 residents in 2017; handily the highest rate in the nation. The state with the second-highest overdose rate is Ohio, which borders West Virginia, and notably, Cabell County.
One would be hard-pressed to find a publication that hasn’t mentioned the opioid crisis, but several efforts to combat the outbreak have been slowly implemented; with some even facing skepticism and push-back from citizens and local politicians.
One key focal point of this example has been the institution of supervised injection sites for heroin users. In practice, this allows addicts to safely inject the drug with clean needles, preventing the threat of HIV infection.
According to Politico’s reporting, Logan County, West Virginia has effectively barred the practice by adopting a resolution to stamp out any attempts to establish a clean needle exchange. The capital city of Charleston has also axed its program after outrage from elected officials.
Cabell County may only be a small microcosm of an epidemic that has gripped the nation, but if these sorts of HIV numbers afflict the rest of the country, it could open up a public health crisis the likes of which the United States has not faced in recent history.
