CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – US Senator Joe Manchin on Monday filed a congressional inquiry at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding an HIV outbreak in West Virginia’s largest province.
The West Virginia Democrat requested the investigation on behalf of the Kanawha County Commission for two months after a CDC official warned that the province’s outbreak was “the most worrying in the United States.”
Commission President Kent Carper said in a statement that the outbreak was “a major public health issue and that we deserve our full understanding.”
In a letter to dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, asked Manchin that the CDC should review the commission’s concerns and respond by Friday.
In early February, dr. Demetre Daskalakis, head of the CDC’s HIV prevention, gave a presentation at a meeting of an HIV task force in Kanawha County.
“It is possible that the current number of cases represents the tip of the iceberg,” Daskalakis said. ‘There are probably many more undiagnosed cases in the community. We are concerned that transmission is ongoing and that the number of people living with HIV will increase unless urgent action is taken. ”
The commission’s letter to Manchin asks whether the CDC has completed an official investigation into the country’s HIV boom. The letter said the commission was concerned that the statements about the outbreak were being made as “the most worrying in the country” without factual and empirical evidence.
In 2014 alone, only 12.5% of HIV cases in West Virginia were due to intravenous drug use. According to state health data, by 2019 it was 64.2%. The increase was mainly due to clusters in the provinces of Kanawha and Cabell.
Kanawha County, which includes Charleston and has 178,000 residents, had two intravenous drug-related HIV cases in 2018. The number grew to 15 in 2019 and at least 35 last year, said Shannon McBee, a state epidemiologist.
By comparison, New York City, with a population of more than 8 million, recorded 36 HIV cases related to intravenous drug use in 2019, according to the CDC. Daskalakis said provinces in other countries with populations similar to Kanawha had on average less than one HIV diagnosis.
The boom, which has largely merged around the capital city of Charleston and the city of Huntington, is at least partly attributed to the cancellation of a 2018 needle exchange program that offered clean syringes to drug users who could not be used.
Needle exchange programs have been included in the CDC’s recommendations for combating disease outbreaks among intravenous drug users. Such programs exist in dozens of states, but it is not without their critics, including in West Virginia, who say they are not doing enough to prevent or stop drug abuse.
A proposed ordinance that would restrict local needle exchange programs was before Charleston City Council Monday night. And the legislature is considering a bill to regulate suppliers of needle changers.
The non-profit organization Solutions Oriented Addiction Response provides addicts with clean needles in Charleston and group shares information on HIV testing with residents, including the homeless. Sarah Stone, co-founder of SOAR, said the bill could halt her group’s needle exchange program.