Dr. Norman Oestrike thinks rural Brown County ought to establish a needle exchange program.

“My belief is that we should be moving in that direction,” the retired neurosurgeon and Brown County Health Department director said on Tuesday. “We don’t have huge numbers of cases of hepatitis and HIV, but we have an isolated population similar to Scott County.”

This year, an HIV and hepatitis C outbreak in Scott County, 70 miles southeast of Bloomington, attracted national attention and resulted in the county establishing the state’s first needle exchange program for drug users.

Brown County Coroner Earl Piper said he has not seen an increase in deaths from heroin or other intravenous drug use, but police there are battling the problem documented across Indiana and the nation.

Oestrike cites the lack of a public health clinic in Brown County as an obstacle for residents who may have concerns about their health. “Our folks have to go to Bloomington or Columbus or Trafalgar to get tested, and not everyone can get there to do it.”

Oestrike said health specialists come to Brown County one afternoon every month for free HIV testing, but that’s it.
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