Another person has tested positive for HIV in Penobscot County, raising the total number of cases associated with the outbreak to 31, 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.
Public health officials have emphasized that the actual number of cases in the outbreak is likely higher than what’s been detected, and community organizations across the state have ramped up testing and prevention efforts as the outbreak continues.
The new case comes just after the Maine CDC identified a set of five cases found this year in Cumberland County among people who inject drugs, and while representatives from the federal CDC are in Penobscot County for a three-week visit to assist with HIV response.
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-five percent of HIV patients in the Penobscot County outbreak were connected to care within 30 days of their diagnosis, and 57% of the cases currently living in Maine had reached viral suppression at their last test, the Maine CDC reported.
