West Virginia Officials Block Clean Needle Programs Despite HIV Outbreak
advocate.comIn August 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finished an investigation on an HIV outbreak in Kanawa County, West Virginia.
The findings cited the county with “the most concerning HIV outbreak in the United States” and a warning that the reported diagnoses may only be “the tip of the iceberg.”Brooke Parker, a care coordinator for the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, has spent the last two years exploring the roads less traveled in the county with an effort to contain the HIV outbreak.
She, alongside a cadre of experts, worry that new cases and HIV-related deaths will increase as political winds continue to blow against efforts to control the virus.Homeless encampments and abandoned houses account for much of the growing rates.
This could be attributed to HIV’s ability to survive in a syringe for up to 42 days, which is accelerated by the drug usage of the affected group.
