HIV and Hepatitis C Prevention in Opioid Response Initiatives

While the attention of policymakers and the public is primarily focused on preventing deaths due to overdose, a critical and sometimes overlooked component of the opioid crisis is the potential spread of HIV, Hepatitis C (HCV), and other infectious diseases that accompany substance use. While new HIV diagnoses among people who inject drugs (PWID) have been relatively stable in recent years, outbreaks of HIV and HCV among networks of people who use drugs have the potential for significant growth in infectious disease cases and the loss of progress at eliminating HIV and HCV transmission. Following a large HIV/HCV outbreak in 2014- 2015, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted a 2016 national assessment and identified 220 counties highly vulnerable to infectious disease outbreaks associated with injection drug use

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