ANDERSON – Madison County is now ranked No. 1 in Indiana in the per capita rate for people with hepatitis C, the Madison County Board of Health learned.
Rebecca Sanders, infectious disease coordinator for the Madison County Health Department, said Wednesday the preliminary numbers showed the county was up from a ranking of third in 2015 and 2016.
She said Madison County is ranked 11th of Indiana’s 92 counties in terms of chronic hepatitis C.
Sanders said in 2017 there were 331 reported cases of hepatitis C in the county as compared to 236 in 2016.
“We don’t know how much is related to intravenous drug use,” she said.
Sanders said the data is being provided to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Last August, the Madison County Council voted to prohibit the use of any county funding for the operation of a needle exchange program in an effort to combat the spread of HIV and hepatitis C.
Last month, the Aspire of Indiana board voted to implement a new program in Madison County that will focus on treatment of hepatitis C as well as a one-for-one exchange of syringes.
The Health Department’s annual report showed there were 830 visits by 371 unique participants in the needle exchange program from Jan. 1, 2017, through Aug. 8, 2017.
A total of 93,180 syringes was provided and 55,776 were returned.
The Health Department made 828 referrals in 2017 for educational materials, testing, substance abuse treatment, medical care and to food pantries.
Stephenie Grimes, administrator of the Health Department, said the Indiana State Department of Health sent an alert last month about the rise in hepatitis A cases in the drug use community.
According to the alert, the outbreak of hepatitis A is in southern Indiana and is connected to a large outbreak in Louisville.
“The state wants everyone in jail tested,” Grimes said. “We’re not going to test in the jail.”
Dr. Stephen Wright, Madison County health officer, said hepatitis A is not a chronic problem.
“A person can only get hepatitis A once and then they are immune,” he said.
Dr. Troy Abbot, chairman of the Health Board, said the schools will start testing for hepatitis A next school year.
“This is something we don’t have to do right now in Madison County,” Sanders said.