How the Heroin Crisis Ushered in a Hepatitis C Epidemic

Meanwhile, high prices and stringent requirements from insurers and Big Pharma are limiting access to effective treatment.

The first thing Amy does after rising from the brink of death is apologize.

“I’m sorry,” she says, scanning the small crowd of first-responders who have formed a semi-circle around her. She rummages through her scalp with fingernails painted lime green. By a hair, she has missed becoming the city’s latest casualty of a heroin overdose.

It’s just past 2:30 p.m. on a broiling Tuesday afternoon, and Amy (whose name has been changed to protect her privacy) is lying in a small courtyard on the side of Wing Fook Funeral Home, a few blocks from Boston Medical Center. Earlier in the day she had purchased a $20 bag of heroin and snuck behind the fence and shrubs of the funeral home to a set of semi-private benches, where she shot up and overdosed. Boston Emergency Medical Services responded to the call in less than four minutes. Amy, who is 20, is the second overdose they have fielded since noon. Already, they’d treated a 28-year-old man who had collapsed on the men’s room floor at the East Boston Public Library. In about 25 minutes, they will respond to their third overdose of the day, a 35-year-old man they’ll find unconscious on the lawn of South Boston’s Moakley Park.

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Hepatitis C surge in central Ohio may spur needle-exchange program

The boom in heroin use paired with a surge in hepatitis C infections in Franklin County and across Ohio have heightened worries about the spread of other diseases, particularly HIV, and sparked conversations about a local needle exchange.

Hepatitis C, a treatable but sometimes deadly viral disease that attacks the liver, was diagnosed in 719 people in Franklin County five years ago. The number had nearly doubled by last year, to 1,369, according to data from Columbus Public Health. So far this year, the county is on pace to record more than 1,400 cases. In just one year, the number of hepatitis C cases statewide grew from 10,020 in 2013 to 15,887 in 2014.

Some of that most certainly is due to a push for testing at-risk baby boomers that has been fueled by better treatments. But there’s little question among doctors and public-health leaders that needle-sharing by people using heroin and other drugs is playing a role. Last year, 603 of the cases in Franklin County were in people 34 or younger.

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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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Louisville needle swap aims to stop repeat of nearby HIV, hepatitis C outbreaks

A trio of deadly afflictions is ripping through a rural county in southern Indiana.

More than 130 patients in Scott County, Ind., tested positive for HIV in less than a year, making the community of about 24,000 people the site of one of the worst outbreaks in decades.

Among the infected are 114 who also tested positive for another blood-borne disease — hepatitis C, which attacks the liver.

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Lee County Health Department offers Hep C rapid test

Also looks into creating a needle exchange in response to heroin increase in county 

 DIXON – It's not just law enforcement agencies that are taking a proactive approach to Lee County's increased heroin usage — the health department is making strides, too.

This week, the Lee County Health Department started offering rapid screening for Hepatitis C. It's an action that Administrator Cathy Ferguson hopes will stave off any future heroin-related public health crises, like the one that southeastern Indiana has seen.

According to the latest figures, there are now 162 people in Indiana who have been diagnosed with HIV as part of an outbreak that, officials say, stemmed from the sharing of heroin needles.

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Comment | Benefits of needle exchange programs

Hospitalizations and deaths due to heroin overdoses are on the rise in Kentucky.

According to the Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center, the number of Kentuckians hospitalized for heroin overdoses more than doubled from 2011 to 2012. In addition, deaths from heroin overdoses among Kentucky residents have skyrocketed from 12 in 2008 to 215 in 2013. Kentucky also has some of the highest rates of drug overdoses and acute hepatitis C infection in the nation.

This year, the General Assembly enacted and Gov. Beshear signed into law permissive legislation that enables local jurisdictions to establish needle exchange programs (NEP), also known as “harm reduction programs.” To some, a needle exchange may sound like a program that helps intravenous drug users feed their habit. To the contrary, the intent of an NEP is to protect public health and create a path for heroin users to get treatment while preventing the spread of diseases through the sharing of needles.

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Cape Cod Hepatitis C rates highest in state among young people

Users of heroin and other intravenous drugs face dangers beyond addiction, prison, and overdose. Deadly blood-borne diseases, transmitted through shared needles, are rampant among IV drug users.

For the past several years, Barnstable County has led Massachusetts in the rate of new infections of Hepatitis C among people aged 15 to 25. An especially dangerous virus that attacks its host’s liver, often resulting in cirrhosis or cancer, Hepatitis C infected 344.3 of every 100,000 residents of Barnstable County in 2012, the latest year for which figures are available. The incidence rate for Plymouth, the second leading county, was 194.57.

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Resurgence of hepatitis C in Mass.

The opioid epidemic that is killing hundreds of intravenous drug users who overdosed this year in the state has resulted in a Hepatitis C epidemic, according to state health officials.

Most of those drug users, they note, are people younger than 30 who probably used contaminated syringes.

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Editorial | Needle exchanges

The alarming epidemic of HIV in Southern Indiana tied to intravenous drug abuse underscores the wisdom of Kentucky lawmakers who included an option for sterile needle exchanges in the comprehensive heroin bill they passed this session.

In Indiana, the surge of HIV cases among 80 people linked to tiny Scott County — population 24,000 — has attracted national headlines and caused Gov. Mike Pence, who has opposed needle exchanges, to reverse course.

Kentucky’s heroin bill was signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Steve Beshear and could result in many saved lives if communities take advantage of the option to offer needle exchanges through local health departments.

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Kentucky to Allow Local Needle Exchanges

In a last-minute compromise, Kentucky lawmakers took a strong, collective step toward combating the heroin epidemic that kills hundreds each year and puts countless others in danger.  The Kentucky House of Representatives voted 100-0 in favor of Senate Bill 216, while the Senate voted 34-4 in favor.

The most debated part of the bill was approval of local needle exchanges, which would be funded through tax dollars. Opponents in the Senate, who voted after the House unanimously approved the bill, said needle exchanges would further enable heroin users and make the overall problem worse. Supporters said needle exchanges will keep used needles out of public areas, and lessen the risk of infection to those who do not use drugs. They also pointed to studies that claim needle exchanges curb the spread of diseases like Hepatitis C and AIDS.

SB 216 also calls for tougher punishment for convicted large-scale traffickers. They are dealers carrying at least 60 grams of heroin. They would have to serve at least half their sentences before any possibility of parole.

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HIV, Hepatitis C infections up in Marion Co.

INDIANAPOLIS - New infections of HIV and Hepatitis C increased dramatically from 2013 to 2014 among Marion County's young adult population, RTV6 has learned.

According to Marion County Health Department data, new Hepatitis C infections among people ages 20-24 increased by 120 percent between 2013 and 2014 – the latest year data was available for. Hepatitis C infections increased by 100 percent among people ages 25 to 34.

New HIV infections also increased 51 percent during that time frame in the 20-24 age group, and 32 percent among people 25-34.

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Boone faces heroin, hep C epidemics

Heroin abuse and hepatitis C infections are at epidemic levels in Boone County, local officials told several dozen people attending an Indiana Youth Institute Kids Count 2015 data workshop Tuesday at the Lebanon Public Library.

“We have a heroin epidemic in Boone County,” Sheriff Mike Nielsen said. Cindy Murphy, RN, administrator of the Boone County Health Department, said 40 percent of people who come to the agency’s sexually transmitted diseases clinics admit that they use intravenous drugs.

“We have a hepatitis C epidemic because of IV drug abuse,” Murphy said.

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Legislature making progress against heroin plague

"The bill also allows local communities to choose to establish needle exchanges"

During the next few weeks, members of the Kentucky House and Senate will try to hammer out an agreement on a bill to address growing heroin abuse in Kentucky. Each chamber has passed its own measure.

The version that emerges will reflect whether legislators see the heroin epidemic as a criminal problem or a public health crisis, the term used by House Judiciary Committee chairman John Tilley, sponsor of the House bill.

Tilley, D-Hopkinsville, made an eloquent, informed and impassioned case that unless it's treated as a public health crisis, "we'll be digging ourselves out of this until we're all dead and gone."

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