Bring Back Needle-Exchange Funding - Pacific Standard

It was something of a shock when Indiana Governor Mike Pence declared a public health emergency last March—Scott County, in the southern part of the state near the Kentucky border, isn't the kind of place that comes to mind when you think of drug abuse and HIV outbreaks. But by that March, 79 people in the county had tested positive for HIV, a consequence of rampant intravenous drug use in southern Indiana. But it didn't have to be that way, according to a new perspective published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. The real culprits, the authors argue, are counterproductive drug policies such as Indiana's ban on needle-exchange programs, and the overuse of prescription painkillers.

"Many observers were surprised" by Pence's declaration, according to authors Steffanie Strathdee and Chris Beyrer. "Other observers, however, had seen it coming." A growing number of people in Scott County, as well as neighboring counties and states, had been using drugs such as the painkiller oxymorphone. But as new policies made those drugs harder to acquire, addicts increasingly turned to alternative injectable drugs, including heroin. And because Indiana makes it hard to get clean needles—using a needle for non-medical purposes is a felony punishable by up to three years in prison—more and more people had to either share or go without a fix.

 

This was a recipe for disaster when it came to HIV and other blood-borne viruses, like hepatitis C. By June 10th of this year, 169 people had tested positive for HIV in southeast Indiana, where Scott County is located, compared with the typical five per year. Eighty percent of those with HIV also tested positive for the hepatitis C virus.

All of this points to the need for an overhaul of some of Indiana's—and the nation's—drug policies, Strathdee and Beyrer argue. First, needle-exchange programs should be the norm. While Pence's order lifted the effective ban on such programs, the reprieve is temporary and only applies to counties undergoing declared public health emergencies, "a requirement that ensures they can only respond to, rather than prevent, new outbreaks." the authors write. That goes for other states—needle-exchange programs are effectively illegal in 24 other states—as well as the federal government. Congress should permanently lift the federal ban prohibiting funding to needle-exchange programs, Strathdee and Beyrer argue.

Bring Back Needle-Exchange Funding - Pacific Standard

UPDATE::Disneyland measles outbreak: Infected man took 2 flights before diagnosis - LA Times

A wave of measles cases traced to Disneyland threatens to spread farther. An unvaccinated California resident infected in the outbreak traveled by plane between Orange County and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport during the holidays, health officials said.

The airline passenger, a woman in her 20s, fell ill after visiting Disneyland in December and became contagious on Dec. 28. She flew from Orange County to Seattle on Dec. 29, stayed with family in Washington's Snohomish County and returned to Orange County on Jan. 3. She wasn't diagnosed until Jan. 8 in California, health officials in Washington state said.

The passenger flew to Seattle on Alaska Airlines Flight 505 on Dec. 29, a Washington health official said. She returned to Orange County on Jan. 3 on Virgin America Flight 1780.


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There are now 22 cases in California of measles related to the Disneyland outbreak, in the counties of Alameda (3), Los Angeles (3), Orange (9), Riverside (2), San Bernardino (2), San Diego (2), and Ventura (1). Of the cases in L.A. County, one each occurred in the cities of Long Beach and Pasadena, which have their own health departments.

Measles patients who were infected after attending Disneyland visited the theme park between Dec. 17 and Dec. 20, and anyone who would have picked up the virus during that time frame should have shown illness by Jan. 10. But officials are anticipating that people who contracted measles at Disneyland could have spread it to those who did not attend the theme park during that week in December.

Disneyland measles outbreak: Infected man took 2 flights before diagnosis - LA Times

Two Infants Too Young For Vaccinations Contract Measles From Unvaccinated People At Disneyland | ThinkProgress

California officials issued a health alert this week over a measles outbreak that appears to have originated at Disneyland theme parks. Nine cases of the highly contagious virus have been confirmed so far in people who recently visited the tourist destination — most of whom haven’t been vaccinated against measles.

Health officials have tracked nine measles cases in California and Utah and are working to confirm an additional three suspected cases. They say that one infected person probably spread the virus throughout the parks. The infected people range from eight months to 21 years old.

Eight of the nine people who have come down with measles have not received the recommended vaccinations against it. Two of the cases involve children who are too young to receive the measles vaccine and are dependent upon herd immunity to protect them from the disease.

Two Infants Too Young For Vaccinations Contract Measles From Unvaccinated People At Disneyland | ThinkProgress