By Matt Bise
It has been almost a year since Gov. Henry McMaster called opioid and heroin addiction a statewide public health emergency. The declaration of a health emergency gives public health agencies and law enforcement new powers to act and respond on a much larger scale.
In October the Kennedy Center in Berkeley County started offering a new medical option for addicts who commit to counseling, and treatment for opioid or heroin addiction has shown that it can work when it’s accessible.
Meantime as new treatments make their way into rural communities, where the crisis takes root, another health concern is surfacing from the scourge — hepatitis C...
Hepatitis C Transmission
The great majority of HCV infections are found among people with a history of drug injection, including people who have been incarcerated. HCV is easily transmitted among drug injectors by sharing syringes or other injection paraphernalia (such as cookers, filters). Hepatitis C is easier to transmit through shared injection equipment than HIV, and HCV is usually the first blood borne virus IDUs acquire. As a result, as many as 50-90% of IDUs have been infected with HCV.
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