Cabell County - Troubling HIV spike
- Thread starter SamSwimmer
- Start date
Wow!
"Cabell County has reported 74 cases since January 2018, primarily among drug users sharing contaminated needles. The recent surge in infections represents the convergence of two major health epidemics, HIV and opioids, the Trump administration has pledged to fight."
"Cabell County has reported 74 cases since January 2018, primarily among drug users sharing contaminated needles. The recent surge in infections represents the convergence of two major health epidemics, HIV and opioids, the Trump administration has pledged to fight."
What kills me is those in charge think this is nothing to be alarmed about. They have their heads so far up their asses and think they are saving the world. Kihlkenny seems like an arrogant jerk.
They don't realize the whole damn town is sinking because they can't say no to the druggies.Enabling at it's finest. Hell, no parent wants to send their kid to Marshall because of it.
Delusional imbeciles. They want to save 1500 drug users while the other 43K of us say WTF?
In 10 years, Huntington may have 30K people and Marshall will be lucky to have 8K students.
They don't realize the whole damn town is sinking because they can't say no to the druggies.Enabling at it's finest. Hell, no parent wants to send their kid to Marshall because of it.
Delusional imbeciles. They want to save 1500 drug users while the other 43K of us say WTF?
In 10 years, Huntington may have 30K people and Marshall will be lucky to have 8K students.
Charleston did and seems to be better for it.
What’s the answer? Hell, if I were a druggie, I’d make a bee line to Huntington. If the powers that be would have taken a hard line stand in the first place and placed a no tolerance policy on drug use and OD's, we wouldn't be in this situation. jmho. The damage is done now. Hope Steve Williams and crew are happy.
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welcome to the forum, Wellen Dowd. I saw you earlier this morning, moments after getting out of the shower, and peeking into the mirror.
I know that many of you believe that an austere approach is needed when it comes to the situation, but the science is very clear on the issue...the needle exchange program both decreases HIV contraction while simultaneously not increasing drug use. A hard pill to swallow for those who believe the answer is simply getting tougher on all those low life drug users.
Obviously in this case, the soft ball approach hasn't helped. In fact, it's lead to an HIV outbreak. Frankly, I think the reason we've taken this approach is because those that make the decisions really don't care about the city, it's future or how it's perceived. They're out for their own agendas and to pad their egos. Look at me, look what I did!
Ask Jeff Joy or any business person what their take is. It's vastly different from the softy, feel good group.
From the HD this morning regarding a forum held last night.....
There was no shortage of questions and comments from the public at Tuesday night's HIV informational forum hosted by the Cabell-Huntington Health Department. Nearly every seat in the roughly 100-person conference room was filled, and the two-hour limit was filled with wall-to-wall discussion - both by the panel of experts and the community at large.......
....Davis also asked how many individuals the department's syringe exchange sees. Michelle Perdue, who oversees the department's harm reduction program, said 795 individuals have used the program this year with varying degrees of regularity. That total, she added, is a sharp decrease from 2017, when the program saw more than 1,200 individuals during the height of Huntington's opioid epidemic and before the syringe exchange was limited to Cabell County residents.
Del. John Mandt Jr., R-Cabell, asked if some flaw in the syringe exchange may have contributed to the spread of HIV in Cabell County, noting local HIV cases were rare prior to the program's establishment in 2015.
Kilkenny said there's no clear answer why the cluster arrived here, even after preventative measures, like the syringe exchange, were created.
Kilkenny cited a study by Brown University that indicates that a harm reduction program in place prior to an HIV event can reduce cases by up to 80%. How many cases Cabell County would have had it not had a syringe exchange in place prior to a cluster, he added, is speculative.
Mandt also asked whether people from different areas, chiefly homeless individuals, may have brought an influx of HIV cases with them. Kilkenny answered that based on the health department's interviews with individuals infected, the spread is happening within Cabell County, and those who are infected contracted it here.
Connie Priddy, the Quick Response Team coordinator for Cabell County EMS, added from the audience that over 98% of overdose victims EMS sees in Cabell County have addresses within the county.
Perdue added that there is a false notion that the syringe exchange itself attracts transient individuals from other areas to use Cabell County's needle services - pointing out there are well over 300 registered syringe exchanges across the country, including dozens in West Virginia and the regional Ohio River Valley.
https://marshall.forums.rivals.com/threads/cabell-county-troubling-hiv-spike.44280/
There was no shortage of questions and comments from the public at Tuesday night's HIV informational forum hosted by the Cabell-Huntington Health Department. Nearly every seat in the roughly 100-person conference room was filled, and the two-hour limit was filled with wall-to-wall discussion - both by the panel of experts and the community at large.......
....Davis also asked how many individuals the department's syringe exchange sees. Michelle Perdue, who oversees the department's harm reduction program, said 795 individuals have used the program this year with varying degrees of regularity. That total, she added, is a sharp decrease from 2017, when the program saw more than 1,200 individuals during the height of Huntington's opioid epidemic and before the syringe exchange was limited to Cabell County residents.
Del. John Mandt Jr., R-Cabell, asked if some flaw in the syringe exchange may have contributed to the spread of HIV in Cabell County, noting local HIV cases were rare prior to the program's establishment in 2015.
Kilkenny said there's no clear answer why the cluster arrived here, even after preventative measures, like the syringe exchange, were created.
Kilkenny cited a study by Brown University that indicates that a harm reduction program in place prior to an HIV event can reduce cases by up to 80%. How many cases Cabell County would have had it not had a syringe exchange in place prior to a cluster, he added, is speculative.
Mandt also asked whether people from different areas, chiefly homeless individuals, may have brought an influx of HIV cases with them. Kilkenny answered that based on the health department's interviews with individuals infected, the spread is happening within Cabell County, and those who are infected contracted it here.
Connie Priddy, the Quick Response Team coordinator for Cabell County EMS, added from the audience that over 98% of overdose victims EMS sees in Cabell County have addresses within the county.
Perdue added that there is a false notion that the syringe exchange itself attracts transient individuals from other areas to use Cabell County's needle services - pointing out there are well over 300 registered syringe exchanges across the country, including dozens in West Virginia and the regional Ohio River Valley.
https://marshall.forums.rivals.com/threads/cabell-county-troubling-hiv-spike.44280/
Yep, no one outside of Cabell County is gonna come and take advantage of free needles. They'll do anything they can to get them. How naive do we have to be?
When Charleston ended their needle exchange program the number of alley zombies in Huntington went up drastically, almost immediately. They're everywhere from Highlawn to the west end. I have been in several restaurants in town where these folks have strolled into the bathroom to shoot up. Nothing like seeing AIDS filled, hep infested folks going into the bathroom of restaurants.
Always an easy position to take when your community isn't being swarmed by junkies. If Huntington were to eliminate their free needle program, would you champion it's start up where you live?
Exactly. I have seen a substantial increase as well. Hell, a local radio guy had an encounter with two of them this morning at his station, at 5am.
If a person doesn’t live here, it’s hard to comprehend.
You don’t know that. It could have possibly been worse if there had not been a harm reduction program in place.[/QUOTE]
Sorry but if the harm reduction plan is so great, we shouldn’t have the only HIV cluster in the state and one of the largest in the country. Really question the way it’s handled and it effectiveness. Not a fan.
I skipped over most of the comments here, because I doubt many of you have really considered the numbers behind this.
I have.
Anyone familiar with the Scott County IN HIV outbreak? Like it is in your news market and you followed it closely familiar? No? I am.
I am very familiar as well with how the fine Christian governor Mike Pence stuck his head up his ass and didn't send in the health care troops when the first strange reports of cases were coming in.
74 new cases in Cabell County, huh?
You want to know how many cases Cabell would need to equal the Scott County outbreak? About 800.
But let's dig a little deeper and just center this discussion on Austin, IN, the community with by far the most cases in my local outbreak. Austin has an HIV infection rate of 5% of its population.
Want to know how many new cases a Cabell County outbreak would need to equal Austin, IN? 4500.
Once Pence got his head out of his ass, the outbreak here quit growing. They set up a robust needle exchange, had health care workers at the exchange ready to discuss drug treatment with those who wanted it, free HIV testing, referral to medical treatment of HIV, etc. It was stopped in its tracks.
Anyone else want to argue the Cabell needle exchange program has done no good? 74 cases, huh?
I have.
Anyone familiar with the Scott County IN HIV outbreak? Like it is in your news market and you followed it closely familiar? No? I am.
I am very familiar as well with how the fine Christian governor Mike Pence stuck his head up his ass and didn't send in the health care troops when the first strange reports of cases were coming in.
74 new cases in Cabell County, huh?
You want to know how many cases Cabell would need to equal the Scott County outbreak? About 800.
But let's dig a little deeper and just center this discussion on Austin, IN, the community with by far the most cases in my local outbreak. Austin has an HIV infection rate of 5% of its population.
Want to know how many new cases a Cabell County outbreak would need to equal Austin, IN? 4500.
Once Pence got his head out of his ass, the outbreak here quit growing. They set up a robust needle exchange, had health care workers at the exchange ready to discuss drug treatment with those who wanted it, free HIV testing, referral to medical treatment of HIV, etc. It was stopped in its tracks.
Anyone else want to argue the Cabell needle exchange program has done no good? 74 cases, huh?
Charleston's needle exchange program was a straight clusterf***. If junkies gonna junkie & we're simply giving them a clean needle for every one they bring back (the exchange part) so they get a chance to help them every time, that's commendable. Charleston was just straight up giving them needles by the bagful. That's not hyperbole. I was actually at a business when they had to call the police when they found two homeless people had broken into their utility building & had been doing heroin for a few days. 13 used needles & an open bag with something like 70 unused inside. The police were commenting they knew exactly they came from & weren't too thrilled.
Do you really think there are only 1500 active opioid users in Cabell County? I would wager it is over 5000, easy.
Come on. Are you really trying to overturn all of the anecdotal argument here by actually offering factual evidence? The next thing you know you’ll be trying to argue that providing contraceptives to teens lower unwanted pregnancies and STD. Just say no and abstinence man.
That is asinine. It is almost like saying condoms are a softball approach to teen pregnancy, and getting rid of rubbers will stop teens from getting knocked up.
Now if you want to argue there is a soft-ball approach in the legal system, I would agree with you. And it is largely centered on a revolving door of rats. Shit, even the black people are not getting harsh justice, which is kinda amazing for WV. Twenty plus years into WV having a serious opioid problem. It's not like a needle exchange came first.
Medical issues require a medical, scientific approach. We know what stops junkies from spreading blood borne pathogens...clean needles and no sharing. Eventually you hope they get help and kick the monkey off their back. That's part of a robust exchange.
I carry full personal protection gear in my first aid kit in my car (really it is more like a full combat trauma kit, you can't be too prepared). Do you know why? Because there is a scientifically proven way for me to protect myself from blood borne pathogens!
Oh my...I literally nailed your response seconds before you posted it. We must be on the same sarcastic wave length.
Why would anybody want a drug infested nasty city? Comparing junkies and drug dealers of that rut gut to teens having sex is a crazy argument.
We have a very robust public health program here, including an exchange. Unfortunately, it took another county blowing up for the Pence-led politicians to get their heads out of their asses.
Oddly, our new Republican governor fully supports the exchanges. I guess he learned what not to do from the last one.
Unfortunately, some of our conservative counties and their Bible-Thumping local politicians oppose or even stopped exchanges. Including in a county with an active Klan chapter. Coincidence? I don't know.
You know who Dr. Jerome Adams is? That's who persuaded Pence to get his head out of his ass. Trump seems to like Dr. Adams.....
You want a city with no drugs, move to Saudi Arabia or Singapore.
The drugs and dealers are here. The addicts are here. Law enforcement targets one, public health targets the others. Sticking your head in the sand on either side is plain stupid, and leads to a drug infested, disease infected city. It's not like drug addiction, and some human desire for drugs, will go away, even Ronnie Ray-gun couldn't do that. Unless you just start lopping off heads, like our Saudi buddies. Of course, their princes get to snort mountains of the best cocaine money can buy....
Who is arguing for a “drug infested nasty city?” You are totally missing the point. The argument is whether a needle exchange program is effective against HIV and promotes an increase in drug use. Evidence suggests that it doesn’t promote increases in drug use and it reduces HIV.
This is the exact same point with the distribution of contraceptives. Conservatives argue that needle exchange and contraceptive distribution promotes these items somehow through tacit approval. They’re exactly the same point.
Here is how I explain it to people: would you stick a needle in your arm for shits and giggles? No? Neither would I. It takes a very certain frame of mind, an addicted state of mind, to do that. The drugs and the addictions were already here. It was here when I saw medical professionals, lawyers, and businessmen snorting rails of OxyContin. No one seemed to bat an eye at that.
A needle exchange convinces NO ONE to start an expensive, life-ruining addiction. It's not even logical to think so.
You just don't understand the problem. It's apparent you haven't "studied the numbers". Dont you know? Teens having sex produces the same zombie, homeless junkies, and crime as you've seen in Charleston and Htgn. According to the self-proclaimed "experts", you're clearly a "bible thumper" or a member of the "klan", if you aren't volunteering your community to be the (needle) pit stop for the junkies.
It's such a success, it makes you wonder why every town between Huntington and Charleston isn't offering up such a program? Well....we know why.
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This isn't even the argument I'm making. I don't think it creates "new" drug users at all. However, you would be hard pressed to argue that it doesn't increase the total number of already addicted junkies migrating into your community for the handouts. This is exactly why you don't see individuals who proclaim to study "factual evidence" standing in line demanding needles be passed out it their own community.
I don't live in a drug infested city with needles and junkies like Huntington. And, I don't live in Saudia Arabia. Sure, you have the weed smokers, pill poppers, and kids taking their brothers ADD medicine. But, not that nasty junkies and we don't have freed needle programs. I guess if we did the junkies from other parts would come in and being hanging around.
I'd argue Huntington being the largest city in the area, with the most of both the good (programs, resources) and the bad (dealers) brings addicts into the community. It's not like Huntington has never had the "bums", as Walden would say, moving in from the hollers, and Huntington sure had its share of people coming in to buy crack back in the day.
I can link to plenty of studies on harm reduction programs. Can you link to empirical evidence that waves of junkies have moved into Huntington for a clean needle? I notice above that Hot Dog Man couldn't...hell, he tried to suggest it, and got shot down.
Did you think I would give a different answer if you said it twice? Christ. Quite factually, there is a needle exchange in my community. It is coupled with health care workers that direct addicts wanting help into addiction programs. We do not have an HIV explosion. We learned from the county to the north. I fully support this effort to prevent expensive to treat (whoops, there is the fiscal conservative in me), communicable blood borne pathogens.
You know what else we have in my county? A growing population (smaller than Cabell County when I moved to WV...we'll hit about 123k in the coming census). A robust economy that is adding jobs. New housing starts out the whazoo. Beautiful new parks.
Meanwhile, how is Cabell County doing with your preferred head-up-the-ass, science be damned, approach to everything?
If you lived near Madison IN, the odds would be better for you being in the Klan, instead of just the usual type of ignorant folk. You could have showed up for the Third Annual Kookout on the river! Seriously, you can google this. This time, those horrible "antifa" people (I assume, they looked a little faggy for Madison) and those liberal churches that allow women to be pastors ran them off. Hurrah.
My advice? Let the public health officials deal with public health. And start holding the people in your courthouses accountable for the criminal, dealer side. Oh, and do something real to grow the economy....Trump lied, King Coal ain't coming back to WV.
You absolutely have opioid addicts in your community. We all do. Shit, there is a needle exchange in Wake County*...I am pretty sure that is where you live, right?
* Very easy to find this out on Google...c'mon man.
Of course this doesn't happen.
In the meantime, please also ignore the increasing homeless population in major western cities (LA, SF) which promote their willingness to take these folks "in". You better ignore the concept of "sanctuary cities" too for those (illegal) immigrants looking for a spot to land. Yep...no immigration increases there.
So does the empirical data tell you that needle exchanges create economic growth?
I can see the new marketing campaign rolling out now....
Needle exchanges: Bringing Jobs...NOT Junkies.
Yeah, let's use logical fallacies!
Stay on topic here. Are harm reduction strategies such as a robust, medically administered needle exchange, effective at reducing the spread of blood borne pathogens? If you can prove otherwise, I am willing to listen. But we both know you cannot prove otherwise.
If you can also figure out a way to prove these exchanges are cheaper than treating a giant outbreak of HIV, by all means go for it.
4500 hundred cases, and we know most of them won't have private insurance...how will you pay for? And you better pay for it, there are now drugs that greatly reduce the chance of spreading HIV by fvcking...and these folks are still going to be fvcking, no matter what. Or you can have....Africa?
So does the empirical data tell you that needle exchanges create economic growth?
I can see the new marketing campaign rolling out now....
Needle exchanges: Bringing Jobs...NOT Junkies.
I would argue not draining your local health care resources on 4500 new cases of HIV would greatly help your chances of economic growth. Employers tend to like places with robust, successful health care systems, we can empirically look at counties without such if you wish....not ones completely overran, overworked, and overwhelmed by something that was largely preventable.
Of course, I have already alluded to the drain of tax dollars on a gazillion new HIV cases...WV doesn't seem to have much of that to spare. Less money to throw at job creation shit like education, infrastructure, etc.
On the bright side, maybe Marshall can find the cure for HIV. That would be a money maker, for sure.
4500...want to start adding up the numbers for Lawrence, Wayne, and hell Boyd counties as well?
Raoul, it's not an illusion. Since Charleston ended their needle exchange program Huntington has seen a significant increase in drug addled zombies walking the streets. There were actually news stories about them moving down I-64. The area between 1st and 8th Street, between 5th and 7th Avenue is like a Walking Dead set. Nearly every business with public restrooms from 10th Street west has the black lights in the bathrooms now.
Maybe the solution is to combine the problem and the solution properly, just hand out free needles that are pre-tainted with AIDS. That's tongue in cheek, but play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Maybe the solution is to combine the problem and the solution properly, just hand out free needles that are pre-tainted with AIDS. That's tongue in cheek, but play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Are you suggesting that all the studies are incorrect and you’re using anecdotal evidence to prove it?
https://www.amfar.org/uploadedFiles/_amfarorg/Articles/On_The_Hill/2013/fact sheet Syringe Exchange 031413.pdf
https://harmreduction.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/NEPReportSummary1993.pdf
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/05/...t-science-is-clear-needle-exchanges-work.html
I know this is the age of anti intellectualism, but please offer support other than personal experience in your observation of some zombie apocalypse. The issue of public health is far too important than to allow politics to sway the decision with emotion rather than evidence based decision making. Again...studies find that the NEP’s do not increase drug use and curtails HIV contraction.
