CDC lists counties at high risk of injected drug-related hepatitis C and HIV

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a list of counties at high risk of hepatitis C and HIV, with most of the counties being in rural locations, and in Southern states. The list of counties was compiled in order to determine which parts of the U.S. have the most frequent incidences of the diseases, as brought about by drug use.
The CDC’s researchers came up with the list of 220 counties, considering variables such as overdose deaths, prescription painkillers sold at pharmacies, and unemployment rates – all risk factors connected with use of injected drugs, and HIV and hepatitis C cases as a result of said drug use. All in all, the 220 counties were located in a total of 26 states, with majority of them in rural counties and 56 percent located in Appalachian states Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia. These states are also among those in the center of the opioid abuse crisis, which continues to grip America despite a few encouraging reports suggesting some improvement.

“Our main goal was to prevent this from happening again, and this is one way we think we can help jurisdictions,” read a succinct prepared statement from the CDC’s John Brooks, senior medical advisor for the agency’s Division of HIV/AIDS prevention and lead author on the new study.
In the meantime, the CDC advised the affected counties and states to ramp up HIV and hepatitis C testing in areas rife with injected drug use, and to come up with ways to deal with possible outbreaks. The three most-affected states – Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia – reportedly added more testing facilities and other services and tools to deal with outbreaks.