West Virginia led in 2017, the US statistics of fatal drug Overdoses. Today, the Federal government is the outbreak of the recent HIV. Local actors are not thinking to Give up nonetheless to the.
Michael Kilkenny, is looking strongly to those people who have been infected in the last few months in his County of Cabell County with HIV. He and his Team ask anyone who is tested positive, with whom he or she had Sex and syringe sharing. Then, examine the Close.
Every Time you have to wait days for the test results. Time is of the essence. HIV infection remains unnoticed, spreading the disease further. Left untreated, can be acute and, therefore, fatal.
“Only if we really find all of the Infected and treat them, we can stop the outbreak,” says Kilkenny, who heads the local health authority.
Cabell County, with its County town of Huntington is located in the far West of West Virginia, seven hours ‘ drive from Washington, D.C.,. 80 people tested the Kilkenny since the beginning of 2018 positive. Weekly new cases. According to the experts, this is only “the tip of the iceberg”. Almost all of the Infected addiction are sick and inject their drugs. Before the outbreak there were in Cabell County each year, only a handful of HIV cases.
Michael Kilkenny tries to the largest HIV outbreak, in West Virginia ever to get under control
Opium crisis after economic crisis
At the entrance to the city centre of Huntington, the steel mill “Steel of West Virginia is”. The mighty brown on the outside walls are dark. What is rust and what is dirt, you can hardly detect it. The Parking in front of the factory is almost empty. Until the 1970s, Huntington, with its 50,000 inhabitants, a regional industrial and commercial center in an otherwise extremely rural Region. Mineral resources such as coal and iron were the Empire. Today, the city is most famous for her drug problem.
Opium-based painkillers were here, where the better paid Jobs were for a long time with heavy physical activities associated, comparatively early widespread. The aggressive marketing of pills by pharmaceutical companies from the 1990s made them ubiquitous. Since the economic decline of Opium not only satisfies physical pain. Almost every Tenth is here, according to official estimates today, depending on the. A quarter of them injected the drug, and is therefore particularly vulnerable for infectious diseases.
The steel plant is reminiscent of economically better times. Today, the gross domestic product of West Virginia is similar to that of Venezuela
2015 Cabell County landed on a nationwide list of the US health Institute with those counties where the risk of a HIV outbreak is particularly high. Michael Kilkenny did everything, what is allowed to be a tight Budget, in order to prevent the. He launched information campaigns and managed more therapy courses. In addition, people suffering from addiction in Kilkenny authority has since used syringes for new trade may. And yet: “We had to find that new syringes can prevent an HIV outbreak, just as a seat belt in a car accident,” says the physician resigned.
Controversial Syringe Exchange
The prevention program the device again and again in the criticism, to promote drug use in the first place, instead of making him safer. A similar program was set in a nearby district after protests. Michael Kilkenny holds in it anyway. Even if it could not prevent the outbreak, would help the clean syringes, to keep the number of infections as low as possible, he is convinced.
Addicts can exchange used syringes against packages with clean syringes and disinfectant wipes
“West Virginia was a state, in which there were very few cases of HIV. The people have slept through the danger,” says Judith Feinberg, a Professor of medicine at West Virginia University. Also, many people, Doctors and residents were not aware that HIV has become in West Virginia to be a Problem. Therefore, not enough people would be tested for the Virus.
On the black list have landed
Michael Kilkenny, makes the criticism for his district do not apply. Although HIV had actually been until 2015, not a priority, he says. Since then, Cabell County, had landed on the black list of the US health Institute has changed that. And since the beginning of the HIV outbreak, his office would do everything possible to test, especially people suffering from addiction. To these people, the doctors on the cooperation with local social workers.
Kilkenny office is a few minutes walk away from Amanda Coleman’s work. In between, the district court is located. With its Golden dome, it stands out. The rest of the city centre’s buildings are a mixture of poorly-preserved brick buildings and unadorned post-war. Many stores are empty. In the doorways of rubbish. The smell of urine stings in the nose.
“I have to have hope”
Coleman is head of the “Harmony House”, a facility for the homeless. Here apartment can spend lots of the day, showers and receive help with housing placement. Dozens of people crowded on the narrow walkway in front of the entrance. It is unusually warm for the end of September. Over half of all those who have been infected since the beginning of 2018 in Cabell County with HIV, did not have a fixed address.
Amanda Coleman: “We are working hard to ensure that our clients are comfortable with us and trust us”
So far Coleman has to send your clients to have an HIV Test to Kilkenny or external staff come in. Now you can be three employees of the schools, so that investigations can be made on-site. “I think we have a better chance to persuade more people to take the test if the HIV Test can be a part of the conversation.” The Stigma surrounding the disease would have become in the last few years, small to little Knowledge about the disease and treatment options there is but still, she says.
University professors Judith Feinberg is concerned that, despite all efforts, so far, only a fraction of all of the Infected was found and in treatment. She says the extent of the HIV outbreak in Cabell County, and the surrounding country, let circles still unmeasured.
“I can’t tell you how many HIV infections will it be at the end,” says the physician. “I hope that there are more than eighty. But when we had 79 cases, I hoped, more than 79 be,” adds he. And yet, he was confident, almost out of duty: “I have to have hope, to be able to my Job on.”