On March 21, 2017, the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health sent Health Advisory #133 to health care providers, hospitals and other health care facilities. Its title was “Increased Screening Recommendations for HIV Outbreak Detection Among Persons Who Inject Drugs.”
The advisory said the opioid epidemic had led to more injection drug use and more hepatitis C and hepatitis B infections in West Virginia. The state had a low rate of HIV, but several counties were at high risk for an HIV outbreak like the one in Scott County, Indiana, in 2015. More screening was needed to find such an outbreak among people who inject drugs.
What providers were asked to do
- Find out if unsafe injection drug use was taking place among at-risk patients, by survey or interview.
- Screen for HIV as a routine step when testing for hepatitis C or hepatitis B.
- Report more HIV infections than usual, or clusters, within 24 hours to the state Division of Infectious Disease Epidemiology. A clinician first noticed the Scott County outbreak.
- Recommend an HIV test at least once for people age 15 to 65, and yearly tests for people with risk factors such as injection drug use.
- Offer routine HIV testing and counseling where people who inject drugs seek care: methadone and buprenorphine programs, drug treatment programs, mental health services, harm reduction and syringe service programs, emergency departments, hospitals, jails and prisons.
Later advisories reported the outbreaks the state had warned about, first in Cabell County and then in Kanawha County. See Health Advisory #155, Health Advisory #158, Health Advisory #162 and the HIV task force.
This information is from March 2017. It is kept here as a record and is not current advice. Check current guidance from the CDC or your doctor.