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Rates of hepatitis C are soaring, largely driven by an epidemic of prescription painkiller abuse, a new report shows. The incidence of acute hepatitis C infections among young people in rural areas of four Appalachian states more than tripled from 2006 to 2012, according to a report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New hepatitis cases among people age 30 and younger rose from 1.25 per 100,000 in 2006 people to 4 per 100,000 in 2012 in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia, states known to have high rates of hepatitis C. (Szabo, 5/7)

Rates of hepatitis C infections more than tripled in four Appalachian states from 2006 to 2012, fueled by prescription drug abuse among those who inject drugs, especially in rural areas, U.S. health officials said on Thursday. National data show rising rates of hepatitis C virus infection across the nation, with the biggest increases among people under age 30 living in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia, according to a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (5/7)

After months of mounting HIV cases, a rural county that's facing Indiana's worst-ever HIV outbreak is seeing a dwindling number of new infections, possibly signaling that the outbreak is winding down, a state health official said Thursday. Deputy State Health Commissioner Jennifer Walthall said there have been 149 confirmed HIV cases and one preliminary positive case in Scott County and adjacent areas since December, but only about 15 new cases during the past two weeks. (5/7)

Republican lawmakers have long opposed needle exchanges to help drug addicts avoid diseases spread by the use of dirty syringes, but a surge in prescription drug abuse, HIV and Hepatitis C cases have forced GOP legislators in Indiana and Kentucky to reconsider their opposition. An HIV outbreak attributed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the sharing of needles by opioid addicts has led to 149 cases in Scott and Jackson Counties in southeastern Indiana. There are 146 positive cases and three preliminary cases. (Evans, 5/7)