Full Article by Dan Vergano | BuzzFeed News
“It’s a public health disaster.” Amid the worst HIV outbreak in the nation, Charleston’s grassroots harm reduction group SOAR is under legal fire. Instead of expanding needle exchange programs, West Virginia lawmakers are moving to criminalize them — defying CDC guidance and prompting civil disobedience training for volunteers.
Clinical pharmacist Christine Teague, who helped detect the outbreak through SOAR’s testing efforts, said simply: “I’ve been here 25 years, and this is the biggest problem like this I’ve seen here.”
With Charleston’s HIV rates now exceeding New York City’s among injection drug users, and laws tightening access to harm reduction tools, public health experts warn the consequences will be deadly.
