A 16th person in Penobscot County has tested positive for HIV since October 2023.
The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced the positive test earlier this month. It is the latest case in the county’s active HIV cluster, and comes less than a month after the state reported the 15th positive case of HIV.
All 16 of the people also tested positive for hepatitis C and reported injecting drugs within a year of being diagnosed, the Maine CDC reported. Fourteen of the 16 people were also unhoused in the last year, and 10 of the 16 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. The organization was once the county’s largest provider of sterile syringes, which are distributed to people who inject drugs to prevent the sharing or reuse of supplies that can spread bloodborne diseases.
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 such as cirrhosis and liver cancer, according to the CDC.
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.
