WV: Restrictions on Clean Syringes Led To Severe HIV Outbreak, Kanawha Co. Cases As Many As NYC

- 'How restrictions on syringe programs led to a severe HIV outbreak in West Virginia,' The Guardian, May 9, 2022.

- The state had hope with programs providing free, sterile syringes, but when those were shuttered one county saw as many infections as in New York City. -

Christine Teague works to find clients “under the bridge and by the dumpster”. Typically, they are people who inject drugs. Often, they are unhoused. All have HIV. Once she finds them, Teague, who is the director of the Ryan White HIV program in Charleston, the state capital of West Virginia, might deliver the results of an HIV test, or the medication to reduce a patient’s viral load. What she cannot provide them with, however, is a powerful tool to prevent the spread of HIV: sterile syringes.

“I was really trying to be proactive in getting out into the community, and [to] educate people about the importance of using clean syringes,” said Teague, who along with local public health authorities was able to keep HIV numbers lower by distributing clean needles. “Hundreds” of people showed up for sterile syringes each week.

But in 2018, the city imposed severe restrictions on syringe service programs. Soon, cases were rising. Now, amid an HIV outbreak in her city, Teague says her program can only work “with our hands tied behind our back”.

The outbreak has been severe. Kanawha county, where Charleston is the seat, diagnosed 40 people who inject drugs with HIV in 2020, about as many as New York City, a place 47 times more populous than the rural county of 178,000. Last year, the head of HIV prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned Kanawha had the nation’s “most concerning” outbreak of HIV among injection drug users...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/09/restrictions-syringe-programs-severe-hiv-outbreak-west-virginia