Users of heroin and other intravenous drugs face dangers
beyond addiction, prison, and overdose. Deadly blood-borne diseases,
transmitted through shared needles, are rampant among IV drug users.
For
the past several years, Barnstable County has led Massachusetts in the
rate of new infections of Hepatitis C among people aged 15 to 25. An
especially dangerous virus that attacks its host’s liver, often
resulting in cirrhosis or cancer, Hepatitis C infected 344.3 of every
100,000 residents of Barnstable County in 2012, the latest year for
which figures are available. The incidence rate for Plymouth, the second
leading county, was 194.57.
Read more... Labels: Cape Cod, heroin epidemic, pwid, young users