A 15th person in Penobscot County has tested positive for both HIV and hepatitis C since October 2023.
The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday announced the positive test, marking the first new case in more than two months.
All 15 of the people who tested positive reported injecting drugs within a year of being diagnosed and 13 of the 15 people were also unhoused in the last year, the Maine CDC reported. Nine of the 15 who tested positive were linked to care within 30 days of their diagnosis.
The new case comes a few months after the Bangor-based Health Equity Alliance ended its syringe exchange program. At the time, the organization was the county’s largest provider of sterile syringes, which are distributed to people who inject drugs to prevent the sharing or reuse of supplies, which can spread bloodborne diseases.
Since then, at least one of Penobscot County’s two other state-certified syringe exchange programs — Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness — has seen a nearly 3,000 percent increase in the number of sterile needles it distributes.
HIV is a virus that attacks a person’s immune system, destroying cells that fight infection and disease, according to the CDC. It can be controlled with proper medical treatment, but there is no cure.
Hepatitis C is a liver infection that can be a short-term illness in some people, but becomes a chronic condition in more than half and leads to serious and life-threatening conditions like cirrhosis and liver cancer, according to the CDC.
While this is the first new case of HIV since early Nov. 2024, the Maine CDC doesn’t consider a cluster over until six months have passed without a new case connected to the group, Lindsay Hammes, a spokesperson for the Maine CDC, previously told the Bangor Daily News.
The spike in cases far exceeds the annual average of two new HIV diagnoses that Penobscot County has typically seen over the last five years.
