Local health officials have been monitoring issues brought on by sharing needles.
The heroin addiction affecting some Ohio communities has captured the attention of public health officials with another worrying consequence.
The number of Hepatitis C cases in Athens County nearly doubled from 2014 to 2015, rising from 98 cases to 180, Dr. James Gaskell, the health commissioner at the Athens City-County Health Department, said.
“This data probably reflects the increased use of heroin over the last few years,” Gaskell said.
Hepatitis C is a blood-borne virus that causes liver infection and can result in long-term health problems. Most people become infected with the Hepatitis C virus by sharing needles or other equipment to inject drugs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
According to data from the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, a majority of Ohio counties experienced a rise in Hepatitis C rates between 2003 and 2012, with 36 of those counties seeing greater than a 100 percent increase.
Athens County previously saw another jump in Hepatitis C cases between 2009 and 2010, when the number of cases increased from 27 to 83.
Gaskell said the contaminated blood or sharing needles during drug use often transmits the virus.
Amanda Swope, the nursing supervisor at Ohio University’s Campus Care, said the center has seen cases in which students had injected heroin or received tattoos from used needles contaminated with Hepatitis C.
Swope said providers at Campus Care are concerned about it and discuss the problem with students who engage in activities that may put them at risk of contracting the virus.
According to the CDC, people who recently have contracted Hepatitis C either do not show signs of the illness or have mild symptoms including fever, fatigue, nausea, abdominal pain and yellow discoloration of the skin and eyes.
About 75 to 85 percent of people infected with acute Hepatitis C develop chronic Hepatitis C, which negatively impacts liver health and is the leading cause of cirrhosis and liver cancer in the U.S., according to the CDC.
Some counties have established syringe exchange programs where people with drug addictions can exchange dirty needles for clean needles and access other services in an effort to combat the spread of diseases associated with addiction and needle-sharing. Athens County does not have such a program.
The Ohio Substance Abuse Monitoring Network, which tracks regional drug abuse trends, gathers qualitative information from recovering and current drug users when conducting research. In a 2015 report about the Athens region, participants indicated that sharing needles is a common practice and expressed concerns about the availability of clean needles.
“We are investigating the possibility of developing an exchange program here in Athens County,” Gaskell said.
Gaskell said there isn’t funding for a program in Athens yet.
Other counties have had success with their syringe exchange programs. One program is CarePoint, which is located in Dayton and was established in April 2015.
Joyce Close, the supervisor for the Communicable Disease Program at Dayton and Montgomery County Public Health, said in the past year the program has had more than 1,100 total visits, exchanged more than 12,100 syringes and served 282 new clients.
“It takes a while to build up trust with our clients,” Close said.
Close said when new clients come in, it offers workers a chance to speak with them and build that trust.
CarePoint offers a variety of services, such as counseling and testing for Hepatitis C and HIV, and connects people to food, housing and mental health treatment services, Close said.
“We would anticipate that you would see more of these popping up,” John Steele, a public information specialist for Dayton and Montgomery County Public Health, said.
Gaskell acknowledged that implementation of syringe exchange programs has been controversial in some areas.
“Sometimes I think the public feels that needle exchange programs can encourage continued use of opioids," he said.
However, Gaskell said people in Athens will “recognize the value” of an exchange program for drug users.
“When we see (users) with some frequency, we might be able to influence them to seek treatment,” Gaskell said. “Our job is to prevent disease, and clearly needle exchange programs have been demonstrated to do that.”
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