Another person has tested positive for HIV in Penobscot County, raising the total number of cases to 27, 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.
The new case reported in July follows two cases reported in June and comes as Bangor community organizations are scrambling to build new HIV support systems after the Regional Medical Center at Lubec closed the Northern Maine HIV program last month, as first reported by the Bangor Daily News.
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.
19 of the 27 HIV patients in Penobscot County were connected to care within 30 days of their diagnosis, the Maine CDC reported.
