Thursday, June 4, 2015

Appalachia gripped by hepatitis C epidemic, bracing for HIV

Appalachia gripped by hepatitis C epidemic, bracing for HIV
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Two-hundred miles north, Scott County, Indiana, is grappling with one of the worst American HIV outbreaks among injection drug users in decades. Kentucky, with the nation's highest rate of acute hepatitis C, might be just a few dirty needles away from a similar catastrophe.

"One person could be Typhoid Mary of HIV," said Dr. Jennifer Havens, an epidemiologist at the University of Kentucky's Center on Drug and Alcohol Research, who has studied Perry County drug users for years as the hepatitis rate spiraled through small-town drug circles there. An explosion of hepatitis C, transmitted through injection drug use and unprotected sex, can foreshadow a wave of HIV cases.

1 comment:

  1. An explosion of hepatitis C, transmitted through injection drug use and unprotected sex, can foreshadow a wave of HIV cases.
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    I guess the aformentioned Dr. Havens has not done her research on how HCV is transmitted. If she had she wold know that" unprotected sex " is not at all considered a mode of transmission. HIV,yes but not HCV... according to all the experts research.

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