The Henry County Health Department reported to the county board of health Thursday night that local hepatitis C cases are on the rise. The health department has been specifically watching those numbers since Scott County had an HIV outbreak among intravenous (IV) drug users. Health departments use hepatitis counts to get an idea of how prevalent HIV might among local IV drug users.
“The incidents of hepatitis C is evidence of unsafe needle sharing practices among IV drug users,” said health department administrator Doug Mathis.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that “about one quarter of HIV-infected persons in the United States are also infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV)... coinfection with HIV and HCV is common (50%-90%) among HIV-infected injection drug users.”
Health department nurse Deb Miller presented a report to the Henry County Board of Health summarizing the blood tests that she has given throughout the year. The health department has been conducting blood tests in the Henry County jail for the past two months. Twenty percent of the hepatitis C tests completed by the health department in 2015 have come back positive.
Miller reported that all clinics, doctor’s offices, and laboratories in Henry County have identified 68 new cases of hepatitis C cases as of Oct. 10. The Henry County Health Department has identified no new cases of HIV related to IV drug usage, Miller said.
State lawmakers passed a law this Spring that allows counties to set up syringe exchange programs (SEPs) as a way to combat the spread of these blood-borne diseases. The law protects IV drug users and health departments from drug paraphernalia laws. The idea behind SEPs is that drug users will stop sharing needles or reusing old needles if they have access to clean syringes. Mathis explained that SEPs can help get dirty needles out of circulation.
Henry County Sheriff Ric McCorkle, county commissioner and former sheriff Butch Baker, and county prosecutor Joe Bergacs attended the board of health meeting to add their perspectives to the conversation. Bergacs noted that most crimes committed in Henry County have some connection to drug abuse.
McCorkle said his deputies and New Castle police officers have recovered used syringes from county parks and public restrooms. The sheriff worries that syringe exchange problems will only exacerbate drug abuse if the county does not address the actual addiction. He said Henry County needs treatment programs and drug counselors in order to help people.
“Without the programs, I think we enable them,” McCorkle said. “Personally, I don’t think the needle exchange is something that works unless we offer them something later.”
Bergacs agreed with the sheriff.
“I think the treatment component is probably the most important part of a needle exchange program,” Bergacs agreed. “You have to make sure these people are getting treatment so they can get off it and not need the needle.”
Mathis told the county board of health that Scott County and others that have adopted syringe exchanges do not have programs in place to treat drug addiction. All those counties are doing is collecting dirty needles and handing out clean ones, Mathis said.
McCorkle recognized that treatment programs and personnel cost money. This summer, the Henry County Council told all government departments to reduce their operating budgets by 6 percent.
“For the second year, we’re going to have over a $40,000 cash shortfall in the tax rate fund,” Mathis said.
The county recently adopted a local option income tax (LOIT) aimed at relieving the financial burden on county safety programs. Baker said it could be at least a year before Henry County Health Department could realize any help from the LOIT.
“This problem is larger... than any one entity in our community,” Mathis said. “I don’t know what the right forum is for it. But somehow as a community, we’ve got to come together and decide what we’re going to do about opioid addiction. Because it’s bigger than just needle exchange.
“It affects our graduation rates. It affects our employment rates. It affects our tax base. It affects us every day in this community,” Mathis added.
Mathis suggested that the health department connect with the HOPE Initiative community group to address the local drug abuse problems. HOPE has a committee dedicated to creating a Wellness Center in New Castle. The Wellness Center will have a drug abuse education component, a rehabilitation component, and a component to assist in community re-entry.
The Henry County board of health members decided that it would be premature to move forward with a local syringe exchange program without treatment options already in place. The board instructed the health department to continue hepatitis C testing and monitoring. The board will call an emergency meeting if Hep C numbers reach epidemic status, if the health department receives a positive HIV test result, or if local law enforcement identify high-risk drugs that are associated with the Scott County outbreak.