HIV/AIDS

The Mercer County Health Department voted Wednesday to close its needle exchange program due to strict requirements under a new state law.

On this West Virginia Morning, we conclude a special three-part series on HIV and AIDS in West Virginia. Also, in this show, we have a conversation with a reporter who spent her summer covering the juvenile justice system in West Virginia.

On this West Virginia Morning, we continue our three-part series exploring HIV and AIDS in West Virginia. Also, in this show, celebrations to commemorate the Battle of Blair Mountain are happening across the state, and we hear about a new book that explores how the American Civil War may have influenced the Hatfield and McCoy feud.

The CDC has identified an HIV outbreak in Kanawha County, West Virginia as the “most concerning in the nation." Freelance reporter Kyle Vass looked at how HIV has impacted West Virginians over the past 40 years. This story profiles Robert in Hardy County, and is part one of a three-part series titled “HIV in the Mountain State.”

On this West Virginia Morning, the AIDS epidemic is entering its 40th year. We begin a three-part series spotlighting the struggles of those whose lives were affected by HIV and AIDS in West Virginia.

On this West Virginia Morning, people who have been incarcerated, once they get out, often struggle to find a job and a place to live. Those struggles often drive them back to crime, but re-entry councils are helping to address that problem. Also, in this show, Kanawha County has the most alarming HIV outbreak in the nation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but a small team from the CDC is on the way to help.

West Virginia’s HIV outbreak is getting noticed by lawmakers in Washington. Earlier this week, U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito announced that $2,397,881 will go to the state Department of Health and Human Services for HIV/AIDS prevention and medical treatment.

Decades after HIV was first discovered, there’s still discrimination. In this week’s episode of Inside Appalachia, we look back at some of the stories our newsroom reported over the past three years about harm reduction programs. We'll hear from several people here in Appalachia who are living with HIV. We also look back at why a needle exchange program in Charleston, West Virginia, was shut down in 2018 amid public outcry. Three years later, the city is now at the center of the most alarming outbreak of HIV in the nation.

A volunteer-run harm-reduction group in the city of Charleston called SOAR has come under fire from city officials for distributing syringes as part of its “mobile outreach” efforts.

Health officials in the Ohio Valley are investigating outbreaks of disease associated with needle drug use in what is emerging as a new public health…