State Approaches to Addressing the Infectious Disease Consequences of the Opioid Epidemic: Insights from an NGA Learning Lab

Governors remain at the forefront of creative strategies to curb the opioid epidemic and related challenges, including increases in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and other blood-borne infections related to injection drug use. Since 2010, HCV infections have been rising at an alarming rate, and the prevalence of HIV has increased among people who inject drugs.1 Injection drug-related outbreaks of HIV and HCV in communities such as Scott County, Indiana, are vivid examples of how these deadly and expensive-to-treat infectious diseases can threaten areas hard hit by the opioid epidemic.

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