Golly, who could have seen this coming? After the city of Charleston WV suspended its needle exchange program in March 2018, cases up hepatitis C shot up from 458 in 2017 to 1114 in 2018.
The program was suspended under pressure from then mayor Danny Jones and then police chief Steve Cooper.
Gazette-Mail reporter Amelia Ferrell Knisely did the math, and it looks like that means a new case every 8 hours. While most cases are due to needle sharing, the outbreak isn't likely to remain confined to people using intravenous drugs.
This is what happens when political interference trumps evidence-based public health practices.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment