Doris Aaronson, chair of the West Milford Board of Health, urged the township’s council to join a coordinated, community-wide effort to address injection drug use and rising rates of hepatitis C in the New Jersey community. Using data collected from Chilton Memorial Hospital, the health department documented 11 cases of hepatitis C in West Milford between January 2007 and 2011. Aaronson asserted that 70 percent of the West Milford hepatitis C cases resulted from people sharing needles to inject drugs. Lowering incidence of hepatitis C has been a high priority of the board of health since September 2012.

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