As rates of heroin and opioid use continue to climb in the U.S., certain communities are seeing flare-ups of HIV and hepatitis C outbreaks as these virus can be passed from user to user via contaminated needles.
The troubling scenario spurred amfAR, a nonprofit AIDS research and advocacy group, to launch a new website containing information on the opioid epidemic as it relates to HIV and other infectious diseases, according to The Washington Post.
Here are three notes on these interconnected epidemics informed by amfAR's website.
1. A majority of individuals contract hepatitis C via intravenous drug use. Among them, 60 percent develop chronic liver disease and 1 to 5 percent die from liver failure or liver cancer. Approximately 10 percent of new HIV infections occurred among injectable drug users in 2015.
2. In 2015, the Indiana State Department of Health began investigating the high incidence of HIV in a small community in Scott County, Ind. Four months into the investigation, health officials identified 135 cases of HIV. Eighty percent of infected individuals reported intravenous drug use, and 84 percent were concurrently infected with hepatitis C. The event was declared a public health emergency, according to amfAR.
3. The CDC has identified 220 counties across the nation that are vulnerable to outbreaks of HIV and hepatitis C due to widespread injection drug use.
To view in-depth data on the opioid epidemic and viral transmission of hepatitis C and HIV in these counties and your community, click here.
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