West Virginia

Fauci Weighs In On W.Va.’s HIV Rate – West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Published

1 year ago

November 14, 2023

Fauci Weighs In On W.Va.’s HIV Rate – West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Since January 2018, the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health has been monitoring increased diagnoses of HIV across the state, especially among people who inject drugs.

According to the CDC, 210 new HIV infections occurred in West Virginia in 2022, the most recent federal data. In 2021, 149 people were newly diagnosed with HIV.

According to AIDSVu, an interactive online mapping tool that visualizes the impact of the HIV epidemic on communities across the country, in 2021, there were 2,196 people living with HIV in West Virginia.

According to the Bureau for Public Health, preliminary reporting shows 83 cases of HIV diagnosed in West Virginia so far in 2023.

In a Zoom call with West Virginia University (WVU) medical students, Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, voiced his concern about the number of HIV diagnoses in Morgantown and West Virginia as a whole.

In 2019, Cabell County was the epicenter of a large HIV cluster, however, since then, HIV cases have been increasing in other areas of the state. Currently, this increase is still most significant in Cabell County with a total of 21 positive cases so far in 2023, with Kanawha County at 18 infections so far this year.

Fauci and Dr. Stef Shuster, associate professor of sociology at Michigan State University, visited West Virginia University virtually in a conversation on the history of LGBTQ+ health care in the United States. The conversation was facilitated by Ellen Rodrigues, director of WVU’s LGBTQ+ Center.

While Fauci is known nationally for his work during the COVID-19 pandemic, he has spent 40 years on the forefront of HIV and AIDS research and treatment.

“Many of us across the country think of HIV and AIDS as a disease that is manageable and perhaps in our rearview mirror, right? But we have unfortunately, reliable data showing that right here, in Morgantown, West Virginia, the home of our university, we’ve had, we have now a substantial uptick in cases of HIV AIDS,” Rodrigues said.

Fauci responded that an uptick in HIV cases “surprises and dismays” him.

“The fact that you have an increase probably reflects two things,” Fauci said. “It’s the lack of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) accessibility, for those who are susceptible and a lack of accessibility to treatment for those who are already infected.”

Dr. Judith Feinberg is a professor of behavioral medicine and psychiatry and professor of medicine in infectious diseases, and the vice chair of medicine for research at WVU. She confirmed the recent outbreak or cluster of HIV and AIDS in Morgantown, defining a cluster as 10 infections or more.

“The one in Mon County, there are a couple of recent outbreaks, but the one in Mon county involves 10 men who have sex with men and they’ve been identified and offered care,” Feinberg said. “And I believe the majority are being cared for actually at what is called the positive health clinic here.”

Feinberg said that with modern preventative medication accessible and information available, cases of HIV and AIDs should be falling, not rising.

“Relative to the fact that before 2017, only an average of maybe 75 to 77 new cases were diagnosed a year, 10 new cases is a lot and in recent years since 2017, because we’ve had a number of HIV outbreaks across the state, that number has doubled,” Feinberg said. “I believe for 2021, which is the last year we have full reporting on it’s something like 139. And it’s been running about double ever since 2017 and that’s really because that’s the point at which HIV entered the community of people who inject drugs.”

Feinberg said there are two major behavioral risks associated with HIV.Fauci agreed with Feinberg’s conclusion about the reason for an uptick in cases in West Virginia.

“Injecting drugs has really recently overtaken men who have sex with men as the primary behavior behavioral risk for HIV,” Fauci said. “And how can we do better with this? Well, first of all, we need a public, we need the public to understand that this is happening.”

According to the West Virginia 2020-2022 Substance Use Response Plan, from 2014 to 2017, the drug overdose death rate in West Virginia increased from a rate of 35.5 per 100,000 to 57.8 per 100,000, far exceeding any other state in the nation.

“Drug addiction, as we all know, is a disease and not a crime,” Fauci said. “And when you’re trying to prevent someone from getting infected from injection drug use, that’s a very difficult problem unless you get sterile needles a little as a needle exchange, but for sexual transmission, we should be looking in the community about why is there lack of the access to what we know is a highly effective prevention. That’s my only comment about that. Very disturbing.”

That prevention is available as a pill to be taken frequently, or a shot, taken on a less frequent basis.

“That is entirely preventable,” Fauci said. “We now have pre-exposure prophylaxis that’s either in an oral form with a drug that you could take every day or in association with your sexual contact, or now most recently, highly, highly effective, injectable long acting every couple of months, pre-exposure prophylaxis that the efficacy of that in preventing perfection, if utilized properly, is 90 plus percent 98 percent, sometimes close to 100 percent.”

With preventative medication available, experts think it is a lack of public perception of HIV and AIDs as a threat that leads to an uptick in infections.

“Changing public perception has been really hard. And I think, as I said, I think what happened is that this entered the public knowledge and the public imagination decades ago, in this more limited context of you know, men who have sex with men,” Feinberg said. “So I think, you know, education and having an awareness is really key, right?”

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.

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West Virginia

Score Predictions for West Virginia’s Senior Day Game vs. UCF

Published

8 hours ago

November 21, 2024

Press Room

Score Predictions for West Virginia’s Senior Day Game vs. UCF

Picking up a win this weekend means the West Virginia Mountaineers are going bowling. It’s been an extremely disappointing season to this point, but WVU can put an end to their woes at home by taking down a UCF team that has lost six of its last seven.

Here is how we see this Saturday’s game going between WVU and UCF.

The challenge doesn’t get any easier this week for new WVU defensive coordinator Jeff Koonz, who will have to gameplan for the nation’s third-leading rusher, RJ Harvey. UCF is and always will be a run-first football team under Gus Malzahn, but they have found an answer at quarterback over the last couple of games with freshman Dylan Rizk, giving them more of a balanced approach.

For the most part this season, West Virginia has had success defending the run. They rank fifth in the Big 12 in run defense and 50th nationally in yards allowed per carry (4.0). Although Rizk opens up UCF’s offense, I still believe Malzahn will want to remain confident in his superstar running back and try to lean on WVU’s front. With less-than-ideal weather conditions expected to be in play, it should keep UCF from wanting to spin it a bunch, which is great news for a weak Mountaineer secondary.

Whether it was the season opener versus Penn State, the Backyard Brawl against Pitt, the Coal Rush game versus Iowa State, or another primetime game against Kansas State, WVU has not handled distractions all that well this season. Senior Day can certainly provide a lot of distractions with all of the emotions that go into it, but I believe Garrett Greene, Wyatt Milum, and Co. will walk out of Milan Puskar Stadium as winners.

I’m going with the Mountaineers in a high-scoring affair.

Prediction record: 6-4.

UCF may have found its footing with quarterback Dylan Rizk – the Knights’ fourth starting QB this season. Rizk has made the last two starts for a team looking to remain bowl eligible. The freshman threw for 294 yards and three touchdowns in his first career start and nearly pulled off the upset at Arizona State in game two. He’s been efficient in his passes, completing 74.6% of his passes.

The Knights have leaned on an effective rushing attack, ranking third nationally, and lead all Power Four programs, averaging 262.8 rushing yards per game.

Leading the UCF ground game is RJ Harvey. The senior has rushed for 1,328, ranking third nationally, with 19 touchdowns and was named a Doak Walker Award semifinalist for the second consecutive season.

Statistically, the West Virginia defense has been formidable against the run and is second in the Big 12 in rushing yards allowed per game at 126.8. However, last week against Baylor, the Mountaineers nearly allowed the Bears to reach their season average of 5.7 yards per carry, gaining 5.4 yards per rush. UCF is second in the country in runs of 10 yards or more with 86.

West Virginia was unable to keep pace with a surging Baylor offense last week at home and there is no indication they will be able slow the Knights down Saturday. The Mountaineers had an opportunity for a game turning interception against Baylor but what has occurred often with this unit, it was dropped. The defense will have to make plays for this team to win and they did it two weeks ago to steal a win in Cincinnati.

I’m reluctant to pick West Virginia for a multitude of reasons but what has been preached by the coaching staff since the arrival of Neal Brown, the lack of consistency in all three phases of the game, sums it up.

I’m going to go out on a shaky limb this week and pick the Mountaineers. It’s quarterback Garrett Greene’s last home game of his Mountaineer career and I think he will motivate and will this team to a win while the defense will dial up more pressure against a freshman quarterback and force mistakes, but it will not be easy.

West Virginia finds a way to win 27-24.

Prediction record: 6-4.

West Virginia

Who Steps Up for West Virginia at Receiver with Traylon Ray Done for the Year?

Published

16 hours ago

November 21, 2024

Press Room

Who Steps Up for West Virginia at Receiver with Traylon Ray Done for the Year?

West Virginia’s passing game hasn’t struck fear into the hearts of its opponents all year long, but the Mountaineers lost one of their biggest receiving threats, Traylon Ray, last week in the loss to Baylor.

A Baylor defensive back landed on Ray’s leg on a deep ball in the second half, causing the sophomore receiver to be carted off the field. Over the weekend, Ray underwent a successful surgery and will be out for the remainder of the season.

Prior to the injury, Ray hauled in 28 receptions for 426 yards and four touchdowns on the season, giving him an average of 15.2 yards per catch. He scored three of his four touchdowns throughout his final four games played and made some big catches deep down the field. He leads all Mountaineer receivers in touchdowns, is second in receiving yards, and third in receptions.

So, how do the Mountaineers go about replacing Ray’s production for the final two games of the season?

“I think similar to when Hudson (Clement) was out. We take a team approach,” head coach Neal Brown answered. “Now, we’re going to miss him. I think that by the time Traylon’s career is done here, he’s going to be a really high-level player, and I really think the NFL is in his future. This is a minor setback. He’ll make the full recovery. It looked bad, but he’s going to make the full recovery, and he’s in good spirits. We’ll miss him.

“But we also got some guys that we can plug and play,” he continued. “Preston (Fox) will take a bigger role. Jarel Williams will play a little bit more on offense. Justin Robinson needs to play more like he did against Cincinnati, not like he did against Baylor. And I believe he will. It will be a committee approach.”

DayDay Farmer is another one who will likely see more action, although he has been splitting reps in the slot with Rodney Gallagher III for the last couple of weeks. While Farmer, Robinson, Fox, Williams, and others may become a little more involved, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll see a significant increase in targets.

Instead, look for tight end Kole Taylor to see a healthy dose of targets in these final two games. Over the last two weeks, Taylor has combined for ten receptions for 86 yards and a touchdown. He’ll likely play a big role in the season finale at Texas Tech, but with cruddy weather in the forecast for Saturday, Ray’s absence shouldn’t impact the Mountaineers too much against UCF.

West Virginia and UCF will kick it off at 3:30 p.m. EST. The action can be streamed live on ESPNU.

West Virginia

2026 DL O'Neal talks West Virginia visit, offer

Published

1 day ago

November 21, 2024

Press Room

2026 DL O'Neal talks West Virginia visit, offer

Cleveland (Oh.) Benedictine 2026 defensive lineman Tyrell O’Neal had been in contact with West Virginia for several weeks but made the decision to come to campus to get a first-hand look at the school.

O’Neal, 6-foot-3, 270-pounds, was impressed with the atmosphere overall but was excited when he found out that the Mountaineers were jumping into the mix with a scholarship offer.

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