JEFFERSONVILLE — Before Scott County’s emergency needle exchange program, some drug users would inject and share the same needle more than 300 times, filing it sharper to make it last as long as possible.
“They will use the needle until it breaks off in their arm,” Brittany Combs, public health nurse for the Scott County Health Department, said Tuesday in a joint news conference in Austin.
Now, addicts are using clean needles each time they inject to reduce further spread of southeastern Indiana’s recent HIV outbreak that has reached 135 positive cases.
And health officials hope that the emergency provisions in Scott County in response to the unprecedented epidemic — called the worst outbreak in Indiana’s history — can be a model for how to handle possible cases in the future.
“We would like to think that the spotlight that’s been placed on Scott County will help prevent this from happening in other places,” Dr. Jennifer Walthall, deputy state health commissioner for the Indiana State Department of Health, said.
That response involves a partnership between several Indiana and other state agencies to form a One Stop Shop centering around the needle exchange that has connected community members with resources “extraordinarily well,” Walthall said.
It may even spur a push in health resources to other Indiana counties that may be at risk.
“Right now, our focus is here in the epicenter, but as we move forward into capacity building and looking at those very important questions, we will have to consider other locations and how to provide resources most effectively,” Walthall said.
Indiana has also received help from five disease intervention specialists from Colorado, Virginia and Missouri state health departments that are tracking down 130 people who may have been exposed to HIV, the virus which causes AIDS.
“There’s nothing that makes Scott County, Indiana, different than any other rural county in America,” Walthall said. “It just happens to be the first that brought our attention to this constellation of events.”
The intervention specialists will work to give officials an idea of the scope of the outbreak.
“We haven’t reached our peak yet,” Walthall said. “I think we’ll have a much better understanding of where that peak is when our contact tracing is complete.”
The needle exchange program is through an executive order — extended another 30 days until May 25 by Gov. Mike Pence — that is contained to Scott County.
“We are thrilled to have an additional 30 days for the needle exchange program,” Walthall said, adding that the second month will aim to contain the virus.
However, state officials promise to keep the Community Outreach Center in Austin open even when the exchange program ends.
“We will help assure that new resources come in so that this effort does not end,” Walthall said.
In the month that the program has been open, 95 Scott County residents have brought in 3,111 dirty needles and received 4,337 clean ones.
Combs said that participants are given an identification card that they must use when they return for additional exchanges. The card does not give identifying information — health officials don’t even require participants’ names or addresses.
Combs said that gaining trust of the community has taken time, as some are wary the program is a trap for legal trouble.
“There’s no way we can track them,” she said. “We don’t have enough information to track them.”
Participants also receive a kit with health information pamphlets and other items such as condoms. Combs said they’re even asking residents about their needle preferences. Most prefer a 27 gauge because they bleed less — which is exactly what health officials want in the midst of an HIV outbreak.
“We had to design this program by scratch,” Combs said. “Nobody’s ever done this before.”