The CDC says Kanawha County's HIV outbreak is the most concerning in the United States

A top U.S. government health official says the rise in HIV cases in Kanawha County linked to injection drug use is currently the “most concerning [outbreak] in the United States.”

Kanawha County had 35 new cases of HIV in 2020. Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the head of HIV prevention for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, compared that to 2019, when only four places in the U.S. had more cases.

He didn’t provide other numbers for 2020, and in a followup email a CDC spokesperson said data from 2019 was used because data from 2020 is still incoming.

“Among U.S. counties that have a similar population size to Kanawha, the average number of HIV diagnoses among people who inject drugs in 2019 was less than one,” Daskalakis said. “In New York City in 2019, there were 36 cases [compared to the 35 in Charleston last year].”

Read more: https://mountainstatespotlight.org/2021/02/11/the-cdc-says-kanawha-countys-hiv-outbreak-is-the-most-concerning-in-the-united-states/