Patti Hall, preparedness coordinator for the Scott County Health Department, talks about the needle exchange program developed for drug users. Staff photo by David Snodgress
AUSTIN — At the beginning of Scott County’s HIV outbreak, local health department staff were told that starting a needle exchange program wasn’t even worth thinking about.
On March 26, when Gov. Mike Pence declared a public health emergency in Scott County, programs that allow injection drug users to turn over used sharps for new needles and syringes were illegal in Indiana. State health officials and lawmakers didn’t even want to discuss a needle exchange — also called a syringe exchange by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and used interchangeably with “needle exchange” by local health officials — as a possible solution to the problem of rampant injection drug use, said Patti Hall, preparedness coordinator for the Scott County Health Department.
Earlier that month, Hall had shared the details of her county’s health crisis in a teleconference with state health department officials and public health workers in New York state. Needle exchange programs in New York City have been in place for 20 years to reduce the spread of HIV and hepatitis C with tremendous success, according to a 2014 report from the New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute.
In 1990, HIV prevalence among New York injection drug users was 54 percent, according to the report. In 2012, only 3 percent of injection drug users were HIV positive.
“They were just absolutely in awe there was no needle exchange (in Indiana),” Hall said.
Dr. Shane Avery, who was one of the Scott County physicians who first saw a spike in HIV-positive patients, wrote a letter to lawmakers citing the evidence of using harm-reduction techniques such as needle exchanges to reduce rates of HIV and hepatitis C, which is also a blood-borne virus transmitted through injection drug use.
“He sent it to every elected official in the state of Indiana,” Hall said.
© 2024 HeraldTimesOnline, Bloomington, IN