ANDERSON — Since resuming Madison County’s controversial needle exchange program in July, Aspire Indiana has collected nearly twice as many more used syringes than it has given out, said Jerry Landers, executive director of Aspire.
Addiction experts say syringe exchange programs are a vital tool in helping reduce the spread of highly infectious diseases such as hepatitis C and HIV, because reusing syringes is the leading cause of new infections.
Landers said Wednesday that Aspire has distributed about 600 clean syringes to intravenous drug users and received more than 1,000 in return
In 2017, Madison County ranked second in the state of Indiana for new reported cases for hepatitis C, according to Rebecca Sanders, infectious disease coordinator for the Madison County Health Department. It also ranked high in the number of new HIV infections.
In both instances, the higher rates of infection can be traced to rising rates of injection-drug use by young people local and national experts say.
Madison County reported 10 new cases of hepatitis C in 2017. Because of under reporting nationally and locally, however, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates the actual number may be as high as 140 new cases.
Medical experts say treating hepatitis C with new anti-viral drugs introduced since 2014 costs $50,000 to $80,000 and treatment costs for HIV can range from $400,000 to $600,000.
While Aspire’s report is encouraging, said Madison County Sheriff Scott Mellinger, the numbers don’t represent the county’s total population of intravenous-drug users who might benefit from the exchange program in part because they haven’t yet gained trust in the new program.
“They haven’t taken that leap of faith yet,” Mellinger said. “We’ve still got people using dirty needles.”
“For me personally and professionally, I’m glad there is an avenue out there to curb the spread of disease.”
Mellinger added the most significant aspect of the transition from the health department is that Aspire is a therapeutic community where users can receive preventative education and therapy when they are ready.
“Overcoming addiction is a really hard thing,” and it may be even harder to acknowledge there’s a problem if users haven’t yet been in the criminal justice system, Landers said.
Yet two individuals who are using the exchange and fit that profile are already engaging with Aspire employees to get treatment, he added.
Aspire operates the program two days a week for four hours each day.
The Madison County Council stopped funding for the needle exchange previous administered by the Madison County Health Department in August 2017 because its members and Madison County Prosecutor Rodney Cummings had serious concerns about how the program was managed.
“That’s very good news,” Cummings said Tuesday when reached for comment about Aspire’s report. “Those numbers seem more in line with what we hoped for.”
Cummings said his problem with the health department’s program was that it wasn’t managed well.
“The health department just couldn’t give needles away fast enough,” Cummings said. “All I asked was that when they handed out clean needles they get used needles in return.”