Now, after years of quietly spreading across the nation, diseases like hepatitis and HIV are prompting action by a critical mass of top doctors, health officials and policymakers.
Such infections were among the many issues tackled at the recent National Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit in Atlanta. Experts said disease threatens not only drug users but the entire population, hitting especially hard in Kentucky, Indiana and other rural states awash in addiction.
“If you don’t do anything, it’s a ticking time bomb,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “I think we can contain it, but we need to move rapidly.”
The fight is being waged on several fronts: Lawmakers at the state and national levels are introducing legislation. Federal health officials are issuing guidance on detecting and responding to outbreaks. And doctors are calling for more disease testing, treatment and education, as well as preventive measures such as needle exchanges.
The stakes are high – and getting higher.
With more people shooting up, new hepatitis C infections reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tripled over five years, from 850 in 2010 to 2,436 in 2015 – and officials acknowledge the insidious liver disease is vastly under-reported. Hep C kills 20,000 Americans each year, more than any other infectious disease reported to CDC.
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