Hepatitis C numbers up in Maine, Androscoggin County

Hepatitis C numbers are up in Maine, with Androscoggin County seeing some of the highest rates of acute cases in the state.

Experts say there are a variety of reasons for the increase, including a spike in heroin use — the hepatitis C virus is transmitted by blood and shared needles commonly spread it — and a new, dramatically more effective treatment that's made patients more willing to be tested.

"We are seeing people coming out of the woodwork to seek treatment for hepatitis C," Imad Durra, infectious disease specialist with Central Maine Infectious Diseases in Lewiston, said.

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Hepatitis C cases soar with Maine heroin epidemic

Maine is undergoing its worst acute hepatitis C outbreak since it began recording cases in the 1990s. Reported cases of the disease have soared since 2013, corresponding with skyrocketing heroin use, and are more than triple the national average.

The heroin epidemic is causing many undesirable ripple effects in Maine, public health advocates say, including the spread of infectious diseases such as hepatitis C.

Acute cases – a six-month infection where symptoms manifest themselves – more than tripled from 2013 to 2014, from nine to 31, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. At the same time, chronic hepatitis C – long-term infections that can sometimes last a lifetime – increased 25 percent, from 1,142 cases in 2010 to 1,425 in 2014.

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Maine sets a record for drug needle exchanges

The total hit 564,847 last year, up 238 percent since 2010, as heroin use surged and clinics like Portland's worked to prevent cases of HIV and hepatitis C.

State law has allowed needle exchanges in Maine since 1997, but the program only became active in 2002. There are four state-certified needle exchange programs, operating at six sites: Portland, Lewiston, Augusta, Bangor, Ellsworth and Machias.

All of Maine’s programs operate without federal or state funding. Federal funding for needle exchange has been banned since 1988 (except for a period from 2009 to 2012) and states often don’t provide funding either, so the programs run mainly on private grants or donations.

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LePage wrongly blames ‘illegals’ for diseases in Maine

Blaming immigrants for local woes — they’re taking your jobs, they’re a drain on public assistance programs and making your taxes go up — has long been a staple of Republican campaigns. The new strategy is to blame illegal immigrants for disease outbreaks in America, when there is no evidence to support this.

In spontaneous remarks during his State of the State address last week, Gov. Paul LePage tied these immigrants to a costly uptick in hepatitis C, HIV and tuberculosis.

“But this is the problem with some of the illegals that are here today,” the governor said. “When a refugee comes here from a foreign country, they get a medical assessment and we know their health. But when they are here illegally, they don’t get medical assessments.

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