Epidemiologist Robin Pollini researches infectious disease resulting from IV drug use, everywhere from California and Tijuana, Mexico, to Massachusetts, Maryland and New Hampshire’s Strafford County. In her 17 years on the job, she hasn’t seen a place suffering as badly as New Hampshire, except for Tijuana.
“The level of drug use combined with the complete lack of access to syringes is generating an epidemic that the state is going to be paying for for a very, very long time,” Pollini recently told lawmakers.
With New Hampshire in the grip of a heroin and fentanyl crisis, health officials are warning of another crisis looming on the horizon — a spike in the number of people with HIV, Hepatitis C and other serious infections that can come from sharing needles.
Hepatitis C is of particular concern — the blood-borne disease is more easily transmitted than HIV, and it’s starting to show up in New Hampshire.
At Catholic Medical Center in Manchester, three-quarters of IV drug users that come into the hospital test positive for Hepatitis C, according to Chief Medical Officer Dr. William Goodman.
Even though older drug users are more likely to get the disease, Goodman is starting to see more young people testing positive.
New Hampshire’s Department of Health and Human Services only started collecting data on the disease in November, and should be releasing a report in the coming months, according to spokesman Jake Leon.
Health advocates say the crisis has worsened because there’s no ready supply of clean needles in New Hampshire.
This year, there are two bills in the New Hampshire Legislature that would create a needle exchange, House Bill 610 and Senate Bill 234.
While it is legal for New Hampshire pharmacies to sell needles, few do — wary of addicts shooting up and overdosing in the bathroom or parking lot.
And in the state, possessing a dirty needle containing heroin or fentanyl is a felony, carrying up to a seven-year prison sentence.
Without a ready supply of clean syringes, drug users are getting desperate, health officials said. Some shoot up with used needles they find on the side of the road, while others have been caught fishing dirty needles out of disposal boxes in hospitals.