Wound Care and Medical Triage for People Who Use Drugs

 South Carolina has the nation’s eighth-highest rate of new HIV diagnoses. Community based, nonprofit SSP proves to be one of the best methods of decreasing new HIV infection rates. 

Private insurance covered only 17% of the cost of hospital-based treatment for HIV in 2018. The balance was covered by Medicare (39.5%), Medicaid (27.8%) or billed to indigent/self-pay patients (15.7%) (IMPH, 2019).

  Private insurance covered only 11.6% of the cost of hospital-based treatment for HCV in 2018. The balance was covered by Medicare (37.8%), Medicaid (24.7%) or billed to indigent/self-pay patients (26%) (IMPH, 2019).

Each individual with HCV who injects drugs infects an average of 20 other people. Leading public health agencies around the globe acknowledge syringe service programs as one of the most effective measures against the spread of HCV (IMPH, 2019)

 In South Carolina, the average lifetime cost for treating one person living with HIV is $478,000 (in 2017 dollars), whereas a new syringe costs about 10 cents...

 There has been a significant increase in the cost of hospital-based treatment for HCV in South Carolina from $198.5 million in 2009 to almost $347 million in 2018.1  Again, a new syringe costs about 10 cents...

 The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and other national public health leaders view SSPs as a key component of a comprehensive strategy for combatting the nation’s opioid crisis and reducing the transmission of infectious disease, thereby saving lives and money.