Dramatic spike in HIV seen among drug users in Lowell, Lawrence

Federal and state health officials are joining forces to put the brakes on a spike in HIV infections among drug users in the northeast part of the state, health officials announced.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health requested help from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after seeing the increase in new HIV cases last year in Lawrence and Lowell among people who inject drugs, DPH said.

Preliminary data from the state shows that there were 52 new HIV cases in 2017 in the northeast region among injection drug users, compared to 23 in 2016. The increase shows a growing trend that officials are trying to stave off.

“We have seen an increase in the number of newly diagnosed cases of hepatitis C related to injection drug use in people under the age of 30 over the past several years and have been concerned about the potential for HIV infection following a similar course,” said Dr. Al DeMaria, infectious disease medical director and state epidemiologist at DPH in a statement.

“In order to fully characterize what is going on and what would be required to effectively prevent further spread of infection, we have asked for assistance from CDC,” DeMaria said.

The federal assistance, he continued, can allow for a more “rapid investigation by putting more investigators in the field and making further use of the capacity of CDC for advanced laboratory methods and their expertise acquired in other investigations.”

“The sooner we can discover why these infections are happening now, the sooner we can use the most effective prevention interventions based on the evidence,” DeMaria said.