Health officials announced an HIV cluster in Cabell County.
Mercer County Commissioner Greg Puckett said this is a result of sharing needles. He has been keeping up with how counties in the state rank in the national drug crisis. He said that sharing drug needles is a huge risk for catching infectious diseases.
“What we’ve noticed here in Mercer county is certainly a higher needle rate with the opioids that we have in terms of bills. That’s starting to go down because we’re doing a good job with take-backs and other things. We’re starting to see the intravenous drug use increase, which also puts an additional risk of disease with those needle-sharing properties,” Puckett explained.
Puckett said counties in southern West Virginia are pulling together to create a place for people to take in dirty needles to try to cut down on the spread of diseases.
