Another person has tested positive for HIV in Penobscot County, raising the total number of cases associated with the outbreak to 29, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nearly all of the people affected by the outbreak have reported injecting drugs or being homeless within one year of their diagnosis, according to the Maine CDC. The outbreak began in October 2023.
This is the first new HIV case reported since July, although public health officials have emphasized that the actual number of cases in the outbreak is likely higher than what’s been detected.
The Bangor City Council approved a $550K proposal from the Opioid Settlement Funds Advisory Committee in August to establish a city-run intensive HIV case management system, and Jennifer Gunderman, Bangor’s public health director, told city councilors on Sept. 15 that the department had hired two new case managers to help people diagnosed during the outbreak.
HIV attacks a person’s immune system and interferes with their body’s ability to fight off infection and disease, according to the CDC. There is no known cure, although there is medication that can control the disease.
Penobscot County typically has two new HIV cases per year, according to the Maine CDC.
Nearly all of the reported cases in Penobscot County are in people who also tested positive for hepatitis C, the Maine CDC reported.
Hepatitis C is a liver disease that can be a mild, short-term illness in some people but cause more serious, long-term issues in others, including liver cancer, according to the CDC.
Sixty-six percent of HIV patients in the Penobscot County outbreak were connected to care within 30 days of their diagnosis, and 63% of the cases currently living in Maine had reached viral suppression at their last test, the Maine CDC reported.
