News Release

Grants awarded to address opioid crisis in rural regions

Announcement

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To address the opioid crisis in rural U.S. regions, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), in partnership with several other federal agencies, have issued nine grants to help communities develop comprehensive approaches to prevent and treat consequences of opioid injection, including substance use disorder, overdose, HIV, hepatitis B and C virus infections, as well as sexually transmitted diseases.  Once developed, these projects will work with state and local communities to develop best practice responses that can be implemented by public health systems in the nation’s rural regions.

The grants are co-funded by the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

Eight awards were issued in response to the following funding opportunity: HIV, HCV and Related Comorbidities in Rural Communities Affected by Opioid Injection Drug Epidemics in the United States: Building Systems for Prevention, Treatment and Control.  

  1. April Young, Ph.D. (University of Kentucky) and Hannah Cooper, Sc.D. (Emory University). Kentucky Communities and Researchers Engaging to Halt the Opioid Epidemic (CARE2HOPE).
  2. Judith Feinberg, M.D. and Gordon Smith, M.D. (West Virginia University). Rural West Virginia Responds to Opioid Injection Epidemics: From Data to Action. 
  3. Mai Tuyet Pho, M.D.  (University of Chicago) and Wiley Jenkins, Ph.D.  (Southern Illinois University School of Medicine). Ending transmission of HIV, HCV, and STDs and overdose in rural communities of people who inject drugs (ETHIC).
  4. Peter Friedmann, M.D. (Baystate Medical Center) and Richard Rawson, Ph.D. (University of Vermont) Drug Injection Surveillance and Care Enhancement for Rural Northern New England (DISCERNNE).
  5. Ryan Westergaard, M.D., Ph.D. (University of Wisconsin) and David Seal, Ph.D. (Tulane University). Community-based, client-centered prevention homes to address the rural opioid epidemic.
  6. Todd Korthuis, M.D. (Oregon Health & Science University). Oregon HIV/Hepatitis and Opioid Prevention and Engagement (OR-HOPE) Study.
  7. William Miller, M.D. (Ohio State University) and Vivian Go, Sc.D. (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill). Implementing a Community-Based Response to the Opioid Epidemic in Rural Ohio.
  8. William Zule, DrPH (Research Triangle Institute). Mitigating the Outcomes Associated with the Injection Drug Use Epidemic in Southern Appalachia. 

One award was issued in response to the following funding opportunity: Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Advanced Molecular Detection in Support of Systems for Prevention, Treatment and Control of HIV, HCV and Related Comorbidities in Rural Communities Affected by Opioid Injection Drug Epidemics in the United States.  

  1. Todd M. Allen, Ph.D. (Massachusetts General Hospital). Next-Generation Sequencing Center for GHOSTing Hepatitis C Virus: Transforming Community Based Molecular Surveillance and Outbreak Investigation. 

For more information, contact the NIDA press office at media@nida.nih.gov or 301-443-6245. Follow NIDA on Twitter and Facebook.

ARC Press Office: Wendy Wasserman
202-884-7771
https://www.arc.gov/index.asp

CDC Press Office: CDC National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention
News Media Line – 404-639-8895
NCHHSTPMediaTeam@cdc.gov

SAMHSA Press Office: media@samhsa.hhs.gov
News Media Line – 240-276-2130
http://www.samhsa.gov