Total case count of HIV in Kanawha County increases by only one from September

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The total case count of HIV diagnoses in Kanawha County increased by one in the past month, according to the state Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR).

The DHHR confirmed numbers Tuesday during the monthly meeting of the Kanawha County HIV Task Force.

State epidemiologist Shannon McBee stated the 85 case diagnoses in the county is as of Oct 7.

There were two cases of new HIV diagnoses in the county since the Sept. 16 meeting of the task force. McBee said during routine data cleaning that one case in 2019 was found to belong to a neighboring county.

McBee said it’s too early to tell if the low increase in HIV cases will be a pattern following a staggering increase in recent quarters.

“We have had to, unfortunately, cancel some of the testing events due to COVID and weather. I think a single month of decrease in the number of cases identified doesn’t really signal anything at this point,” she said.

With the significant increase in cases over the past few years, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report in the summer of recommendations to control the HIV spread in the county including increased access to sterile syringes.

McBee said the state will work with community partners on efforts to keep cases down.

“The state is currently trying to prioritize its efforts in response to the CDC recommendations and is fully supportive in working with community partners and the local health department to support any programs that would be an alignment with our current laws,” she said.

Of the two cases of new HIV diagnoses, one case was in-patient and the other was West Virginia Health Right. 30 of the 41 cases in the county in 2021 have been associated with injection drug use, according to the DHHR.

81% of the 85 cases were people between 20 and 40 years of age, 52% male, and 48% homeless or unstably housed.