The Bangor City Council approved spending $550,000 in opioid settlement funds Monday to create an intensive case management program for people who have contracted HIV during the ongoing outbreak in Penobscot County.

That amount is about half of the funds Bangor has received so far from national settlements with companies accused of contributing to the opioid crisis.

Members of the city’s opioid settlement funds advisory committee hope the program will fill an urgent need as new HIV cases continue to be diagnosed in the area. The 28th case in the HIV outbreak, which started in October 2023, was reported last week.

The need for specialized care for people affected by the outbreak, nearly all of whom reported injecting drugs and being homeless in the year before their diagnosis, has

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