By John Dillon
Physicians hope that a bill now in the U.S. Senate will prevent the nation’s opioid epidemic from posing a secondary health threat by spreading communicable diseases like hepatitis.
The Eliminating Opioid-Related Infectious Disease Act of 2018 would authorize the CDC to expand the surveillance of infectious diseases associated with drug use by injection. It would give the CDC $40 million annually for five years to launch programs targeting the high rates of infectious