The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Maine CDC) is calling for increased regular testing for HIV statewide for people with ongoing risk factors after three new HIV diagnoses were confirmed in Penobscot County, the agency announced in a public health advisory Friday.
Maine CDC said Friday that the three additional HIV cases in Penobscot County were confirmed among people who inject drugs, part of a cluster associated with a total of six recently confirmed cases in the county.
Out of those six individuals newly diagnosed with HIV from October 1, 2023, to April 1, 2024, all six were reported users of injectable drugs, five were homeless, and some had previous contact with the health care system but had missed opportunities for HIV testing, the agency said.
According to Maine CDC, all six of the HIV positive individuals are co-infected with Hepatitis C, and three of the individuals reported sharing or reusing drug equipment at the time of their diagnosis.
[RELATED: ‘Please carry Narcan, do not use alone’: Sanford PD Responds to Three Overdoses in 24 Hours…]
Maine CDC said that over the past five years, there have been an average of two new HIV diagnoses per year in Penobscot County among residents generally, and one new case per year among people who inject drugs in the county.
“Maine CDC encourages clinicians to increase the frequency of HIV and HCV testing statewide for people in groups impacted by this cluster and people with ongoing risk factors, including PWID [people who inject drugs], people who share or reuse injection drug equipment, people who are unhoused, and sex partners and needle-sharing partners of PWID, to at least every 3 months (instead of the general recommendation for testing at least every 12 months),” the agency announced in their Friday bulletin.
In “Recommendations for People Who Inject Drugs,” the Maine CDC urged clinicians to connect patients with “community resources,” including “harm reduction or syringe services programs.”
[RELATED: Sanford Suspends Syringe Exchange Program, Cleans Homeless Encampment…]
The Maine CDC partners with several nonprofit organizations that run “Syringe Service Programs” throughout the state, which provide sterile syringes to people in exchange for dirty ones in an effort to reduce disease and encourage the safe disposal of sharps.
According to a state report on the syringe service program, nearly 7,000 individuals were enrolled in the program during 2022, and a total of approximately 2.3 million new syringes were given out — more than 300 per person.
[RELATED: State Rep Ann Fredericks Requests Resolution to Reform Maine’s Syringe Exchange Program…]
In 2020 and 2021, the number of syringes distributed outnumbered the number of needles collected — in 2020 alone the state’s syringe service programs handed out over 2.5 million needles.
According to the Maine Drug Data Hub, in 2023 emergency services responded to a total of 1,253 nonfatal drug overdoses, and a reported 91 overdose fatalities in Penobscot County — accounting for about 15 percent of the total overdose deaths statewide.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="27531 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=27531">9 Comments
Not mentioned, of course, is contracting HIV from anal sex. From the CDC’s own website: https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/hiv-transmission/ways-people-get-hiv.html
” people who are unhoused, and sex partners and needle-sharing partners of PWID, to at least every 3 months (instead of the general recommendation for testing at least every 12 months),” And how much is this costing those of us who work and pay taxes in Maine? Spare me the argument that free needles are cheaper than dealing with AIDS: it does not cost much to bury a dead druggy.
so the people who have narcan on stand by are the same people who are getting aids, are also the same people who are homeless…. wonder whats the connection? random thought… the chinnese who grow weed everywhere also run the herion/fentanol …..
…if there was any border control, perhaps there would be fewer problems with drugs and disease entering this country. Instead, the Dems, who are the biggest arbiters of the chaos we see unfolding, will grow the government with useless paper pushers and more commissions and agencies to investigate the same chaos they have created! Disgusting!
Let’s not forget they used a piece of HIV within the Covid vax. Sadly, there will be many more cases to come.
Auntie Janet will ask for more taxpayer money to fix her f.ups.
“…the fact that the US has issued four vetoes on behalf of Israel over the past seven months despite both international and domestic public opinion clearly supporting an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the recognition of Palestinian statehood is remarkable. It shows that US leadership has been very publicly lambasted; additionally, it is clear that US “ironclad support” for Israel will not survive into the next generation because of the dismal state of public opinion, even just in the US itself.”
The Middle East crisis has made one thing clear about the US
RT
22 Apr 2024
Hey Red,
Go F yourself
You’re forgetting the rules of dealing narcotics: if your dealer has hiv and knows he does, well, it’s a lot like vampires, he makes sure all his buyers are exposed to it, also
The sadly idiot on here mentioning the vax will of course remember all the things she learned about snippets of hiv and nuclei and DNA and polymerases was inside a microbiology text, not a nanobiology text.
Hep C so colorful and easy to identify, even for a drug dealer; i assure you, he rubs it everywhere when he sells it to you