A supply of needles in various sizes are displayed at the Scott County Health Department's needle exchange program developed for drug users. On Tuesday, a needle exchange program was approved for Monroe County. David Snodgress | Herald-Times
Monroe County will be the fourth Indiana county to begin a state-approved needle exchange to curb rising rates of hepatitis C due to injection drug use.
The program, which will allow injection drug users to exchange used needles for clean needles, will be maintained by the Indiana Recovery Alliance, and is expected to start in January.
State Health Commissioner Jerome Adams declared a public health emergency in Monroe County Tuesday, which allows a county health department to begin operating a local needle exchange program. The state legalized approved needle exchanges following an outbreak of HIV in rural Scott County that directly resulted from increased opioid injection drug use.
The process to establishing a needle exchange locally took several months longer than in Scott, Madison and Fayette counties because the Monroe County Health Department has contracted the Indiana Recovery Alliance to provide the exchange through its mobile unit.
Monroe is the first county to use an outside source – in this case a nonprofit that works with the injection drug community – to operate the exchange.
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