Another positive HIV was reported in Penobscot County in late December, raising the total number of cases associated with the outbreak to 34, 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.
Community organizations across the state have ramped up testing and prevention efforts as the outbreak continues, and the Maine CDC identified a set of five cases in November that had been detected in Cumberland County last year among people who inject drugs.
Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staff visited Penobscot County last month 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.
In nearly all of the reported cases in Penobscot County, the people affected also tested positive for hepatitis C, the Maine CDC reported.
Hepatitis C is a liver disease that can be a mild, short-term illness for some people but which can cause more serious, long-term issues for others, including liver cancer, according to the CDC.
Seventy-one percent of HIV patients in the Penobscot County outbreak were connected to care within 30 days of their diagnosis, and 55% of the cases currently living in Maine had reached viral suppression — meaning they can’t transmit HIV to others — at their most recent test, the Maine CDC reported.