Penobscot County, Maine, is grappling with the largest HIV outbreak in the state’s history. Home to Bangor, a city of roughly 32,000, the county has identified 28 new cases over nearly two years. That’s seven times the typical number for that length of time. Nearly all cases are among people who use drugs and are homeless.
Public health experts and local advocates say the outbreak is fueled by a confluence of on-the-ground factors: the sidelining and closing of programs that distributed sterile syringes to people who use drugs, a shortage of medical providers focused on HIV, and the clearing of the city’s largest homeless encampment, which upended care for newly diagnosed people living there.
But those issues may not remain local for long.
The Trump administration is pushing similar tactics nationwide. In a recent executive order, Trump called for defunding programs that engage in harm reduction — a broad term that encompasses many public health interventions, including syringe services, aimed at keeping people who use drugs alive. Such efforts are sometimes controversial, with critics saying they enable illegal activity. The executive order also supports forcing homeless people off the street and into treatment. This comes after the administration cut or delayed funding for various addiction and HIV-related programs and hollowed out federal agencies focused on these topics.
Syringe services programs are one of the leading distributors nationwide of overdose reversal medications, such as naloxone. They also provide people who use drugs with sterile syringes and other equipment that has been shown to re …