West Virginia
Syringe exchange fears hobble fight against West Virginia HIV outbreak • West Virginia Watch
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — More than three years have passed since federal health officials arrived in central Appalachia to assess an alarming outbreak of HIV spread mostly between people who inject opioids or methamphetamine.
Infectious disease experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made a list of recommendations following their visit, including one to launch syringe service programs to stop the spread at its source. But those who’ve spent years striving to protect people who use drugs from overdose and illness say the situation likely hasn’t improved, in part because of politicians who contend that such programs encourage illegal drug use.
Joe Solomon is a Charleston City Council member and co-director of SOAR WV, a group that works to address the health needs of people who use drugs. He’s proud of how his close-knit community has risen to this challenge but frustrated with the restraints on its efforts.
“You see a city and a county willing to get to work at a scale that’s bigger than ever before,” Solomon said, “but we still have one hand tied behind our back.”
The hand he references is easier access to clean syringes.
In April 2021, the CDC came to Charleston — the seat of Kanawha County and the state capital, tucked into the confluence of the Kanawha and Elk rivers — to investigate dozens of newly detected HIV infections. The CDC’s HIV intervention chief called it “the most concerning HIV outbreak in the United States” and warned that the number of reported diagnoses could be just “the tip of the iceberg.”
Now, despite attention and resources directed toward the outbreak, researchers and health workers say HIV continues to spread. In large part, they say, the outbreak lingers because of restrictions state and local policymakers have placed on syringe exchange efforts.
Research indicates that syringe service programs are associated with an estimated 50% reduction in HIV and hepatitis C, and the CDC issued recommendations to steer a response to the outbreak that emphasized the need for improved access to those services.
That advice has thus far gone unheeded by local officials.
In late 2015, the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department launched a syringe service program but shuttered it in 2018 under pressure, with then-Mayor Danny Jones calling it a “mini-mall for junkies and drug dealers.”
SOAR stepped in, hosting health fairs at which it distributed naloxone, an opioid overdose reversal drug; offered treatment and referrals; provided HIV testing; and exchanged clean syringes for used ones.
But in April 2021, the state legislature passed a bill limiting the number of syringes people could exchange and made it mandatory to present a West Virginia ID. The Charleston City Council subsequently added guidelines of its own, including requiring individual labeling of syringes.
As a result of these restrictions, SOAR ceased exchanging syringes. West Virginia Health Right now operates an exchange program in the city under the restrictions.
Robin Pollini is a West Virginia University epidemiologist who conducts community-based research on injection drug use. “Anyone I’ve talked to who’s used that program only used it once,” she said. “And the numbers they report to the state bear that out.”
A syringe exchange run by the health department in nearby Cabell County — home to Huntington, the state’s largest city after Charleston — isn’t so constrained. As Solomon notes, that program exchanges more than 200 syringes for every one exchanged in Kanawha.
A common complaint about syringe programs is that they result in discarded syringes in public spaces. Jan Rader, director of Huntington’s Mayor’s Office of Public Health and Drug Control Policy, is regularly out on the streets and said she seldom encounters discarded syringes, pointing out that it’s necessary to exchange a used syringe for a new one.
In August of last year, the Charleston City Council voted down a proposal from the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia to operate a syringe exchange in the city’s West Side community, with opponents expressing fears of an increase in drug use and crime.
Pollini said it’s difficult to estimate the number of people in West Virginia with HIV because there’s no coordinated strategy for testing; all efforts are localized.
“You would think that in a state that had the worst HIV outbreak in the country,” she said, “by this time we would have a statewide testing strategy.”
In addition to the testing SOAR conducted in 2021 at its health fairs, there was extensive testing during the CDC’s investigation. Since then, the reported number of HIV cases in Kanawha County has dropped, Pollini said, but it’s difficult to know if that’s the result of getting the problem under control or the result of limited testing in high-risk groups.
“My inclination is the latter,” she said, “because never in history has there been an outbreak of injection-related HIV among people who use drugs that was solved without expanding syringe services programs.”
“If you go out and look for infections,” Pollini said, “you will find them.”
Solomon and Pollini praised the ongoing outreach efforts — through riverside encampments, in abandoned houses, down county roads — of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program to test those at highest risk: people known to be injecting drugs.
“It’s miracle-level work,” Solomon said.
But Christine Teague, Ryan White Program director at the Charleston Area Medical Center, acknowledged it hasn’t been enough. In addition to HIV, her concerns include the high incidence of hepatitis C and endocarditis, a life-threatening inflammation of the lining of the heart’s chambers and valves, and the cost of hospital resources needed to address them.
“We’ve presented that data to the legislature,” she said, “that it’s not just HIV, it’s all these other lengthy hospital admissions that, essentially, Medicaid is paying for. And nothing seems to penetrate.”
Frank Annie is a researcher at CAMC specializing in cardiovascular diseases, a member of the Charleston City Council, and a proponent of syringe service programs. Research he co-authored found 462 cases of endocarditis in southern West Virginia associated with injection drug use, at a cost to federal, state, and private insurers of more than $17 million, of which less than $4 million was recovered.
Teague is further concerned for West Virginia’s rural counties, most of which don’t have a syringe service program.
Tasha Withrow, a harm reduction advocate in bordering rural Putnam County, said her sense is that HIV numbers aren’t alarmingly high there but said that, with little testing and heightened stigma in a rural community, it’s difficult to know.
In a January 2022 follow-up report, the CDC recommended increasing access to harm reduction services such as syringe service programs through expansion of mobile services, street outreach, and telehealth, using “patient-trusted” individuals, to improve the delivery of essential services to people who use drugs.
Teague would like every rural county to have a mobile unit, like the one operated by her organization, offering harm reduction supplies, medication, behavioral health care, counseling, referrals, and more. That’s an expensive undertaking. She suggested opioid settlement money through the West Virginia First Foundation could pay for it.
Pollini said she hopes state and local officials allow the experts to do their jobs.
“I would like to see them allow us to follow the science and operate these programs the way they’re supposed to be run, and in a broader geography,” she said. “Which means that it shouldn’t be a political decision; it should be a public health decision.”
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WOWK) — Every passenger traveling through the airport has a story and a meaningful reason to be heading to their destination.
But most passengers don’t know the work that goes on behind the scenes to ensure they get there safely.
‘Behind the Journey’ is West Virginia International Yeager Airport’s campaign that helps passengers get a better understanding of airport operations and adds transparency and education to the travel experience.
The operations department is up early at 4 a.m. to search for foreign objects or debris that could create a dangerous situation for an aircraft.
“Our first job in the morning is to do a sweep of the entire airfield, the runway and the taxiways, just to make sure that there’s nothing on there that could puncture an aircraft tire or be sucked into an engine,” Joe Belcher, operations specialist, said.
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Once the runway is clear and safe, passengers can enjoy their flight with peace of mind.
Elizabeth Lynn, who flies to New Jersey once a month for work on Breeze Airways, says she loves the experience she has at a regional airport.
“One experience I had, I didn’t get here in time. I have to check my bag. And they were nice enough to actually take my checked bag down and let it in for me because I showed up a little late,” Lynn said.
Ned and Hercules are working hard to keep birds away from the runway and brighten up a passenger’s day.
“They will also go through the terminal. They’ll visit employees. They’ll also visit any type of passengers that are in the lobby. They’ll do meet and greets. They do a lot of things. They stay pretty busy throughout the day,” Blecher said.
Paige Withrow, marketing officer at CRW, says the campaign educates passengers on how the airport systems work.
“It’s important for passengers to know what happens behind the scenes so that they know who to contact if something goes wrong while they’re traveling. So if their baggage is delayed, they know to contact their airline. If they have an issue during their travel, don’t know exactly which vendor to contact,” Withrow said.
There are QR codes throughout the terminals for passengers to fill out surveys about their experience.
The campaign runs until June 30.
For more news from across the Tri-State, click here.
West Virginia
Governor’s Highway Safety Program hosts annual luncheon recognizing law enforcement – WV MetroNews
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Law enforcement who keep West Virginia roadways safe were honored Thursday in the Capital City.
The West Virginia Governor’s Highway Safety Program (GHSP) hosted the annual Law Enforcement Traffic Safety Awards Luncheon at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center to highlight over 100 law enforcement agencies and officers from across the state for their work.
GHSP Director Jack McNeely says the program covers the nearly 39,000 miles of public roadways in West Virginia, and it aims to reduce crashes, serious injuries, and fatalities. It was very important to recognize the law enforcement during the luncheon, McNeely said.
“For their efforts while enforcing against impaired driving, distracted driving, seatbelt use, and while they’re on the Governor’s Highway Safety Program time,” McNeely said. “Our program, we change behaviors. Our goal is to change behaviors or drivers. We do that through engagement, education and enforcement.”
A particularly susceptible group to roadway accidents is young drivers. McNeely said the number one cause of death for 15-to-24-year-olds is car crashes. He said part of it is inexperience, and so education plays a key role.
McNeely mentioned the GHSP funds some projects through the Driver’s Education Program in West Virginia, as well as the Drive to Save Lives program, which spreads information about factors that cause crashes.
McNeely said 30-year motivational speaker Cara Filler spoke with the GHSP last week, and she has particular insight into the dangers of speed-related crashes. McNeely said Filler’s twin sister was killed one day after her 18th birthday in a speed-related crash. Filler has reached two million people in five countries during her time as motivational speaker.
There were special guests at the luncheon. Boone County couple Jimmy and Zelda Craig, whose daughter Baylea Bower was killed by an impaired driver during Easter weekend last year, were present in the Capital City. McNeely mentioned House Bill 4712, named “Baylea’s Law” after Bower, which was passed earlier this year.
“Baylea’s Law” stiffened penalties for those charged with DUI causing death.
“We refer to them as crashes, because it’s a choice for someone to get behind a wheel impaired, whether by alcohol or drugs,” McNeely said. “It’s a choice for someone to speed. In that [Baylea Bower] particular case, we had speed, we had impairment, both alcohol and drug related. It’s a choice to pick up your phone and look at it while you’re driving down the road. It’s a choice not to put to buckle up your seatbelt.”
There’s no excuse for driving impaired, McNeely said. He implored people to always have a backup plan if they become intoxicated under alcohol or drugs.
“It’s important to have somebody, if you’re going out, whether a college town, whether you’re in Huntington, whether you’re in Morgantown, but if you know you’re going to be around that, have a designated driver,” McNeely said. “That’s the only thing I can say. Have a game plan, not only if you’re going to be the one drinking, but have a game plan if you’re going to be the one that’s not, and going to be the responsible one for that evening. Take those keys away.”
Another initiative with the GHSP has been impaired-driving checkpoints. McNeely said those checkpoints are more of an awareness program, the blue lights remind drivers to travel safely. He said it helps keep impaired drivers off the road.
The Governor’s Highway Safety Program reported 1,873 DUI arrests in the state of West Virginia in 2025. The GHSP cited 23% of the state’s vehicle deaths over the past five years as alcohol related.
A few post-election observations:
–This election saw an historic divide within the state’s Republican Party, with candidates endorsed and funded by Governor Morrisey and related PACS vs. Senator Tom Takubo’s slate. In Kanawha County, Takubo survived withering and well-financed attacks to win re-nomination, as did Senator Vince Deeds in Greenbrier County. However, as our Brad McElhinny reported, “Morrisey’s endorsements and associated spending touched enough winners that the governor still could have significant influence on the chamber going into the next regular session.”
–The Morrisey vs. Takubo state senate slates ended up being a push. Morrisey is claiming victory, but at what cost? The Morrisey side outspent Takubo’s fundraisers four to one but ended up with status quo in the Senate. That means the internal dealing begins now to determine who will lead the Senate in the next session.
–West Virginians living in competitive districts were deluged with negative ads. Many crossed the line from being mean-spirited to simply inaccurate. There is always debate about the effectiveness of negative ads, but we don’t see any letup. More recent research suggests the conventional wisdom that negative ads depress turnout may not be accurate, but they certainly did not help turnout in this election.
–Most West Virginia voters stayed home. The Secretary of State’s office reports turnout at 21 percent (20.91 to be exact). That is slightly less than the last off-year primary in 2022, when the turnout was 23 percent, and well below the 2018 turnout of 26 percent.
–The statewide court races, which were open to Democrats, Republicans and Independents, turned into a brutal night for incumbents. Two Supreme Court office holders and the Intermediate Court of Appeals incumbent all lost. MetroNews Talkline co-host T.J. Meadows speculates that independent voters, who were blocked from voting in the GOP primary, joined Democrats in throwing out the judicial office holders.
–It was also a rough night for a handful of Republican House of Delegates members. At least 14 lost their re-nomination races.
–Yes, every vote does count, especially in the small single-member House districts, when there is a light voter turnout. Unofficial results on the Republican side show that in the 74th district, incumbent Guy Ward won by 17 votes. Paul Howe finished with a 15 vote advantage in the 70th. Justin Beanard won by five votes in the 10th, Tim McNeely won by four votes in the 71st, and Aaron Holley finished two votes ahead in the 22nd.
–Getting out the vote in your home county makes a difference in a statewide race with low turnout. Rachel Fetty Anderson won the race for the Democratic nomination to the U.S. Senate over four other candidates, including former state Senate President and one-time gubernatorial candidate Jeff Kessler. Anderson received 3,900 more votes than Kessler in her home county of Monongalia, while Kessler received fewer than 1,400 more votes than Anderson in his home Ohio County. Anderson’s win may also signal Democrats are more interested in new faces than giving another shot to a veteran pol.
–And finally, another West Virginia county has gone Republican. The Monongalia County Republican Executive Committee says GOP registration has now surpassed the Democratic Party 22,670 to 22,468. Democrats have the advantage in registration in just four counties—Boone, Logan, McDowell, Mingo—and Boone is just 41 registrations away from flipping.
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