INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana approved a year-long needle-exchange program Thursday for a rural county at the center of an HIV outbreak that spurred a new state law allowing such programs to curb the spread of diseases among intravenous drug users.
State health Commissioner Dr. Jerome Adams’ approval for Scott County includes a public-health emergency declaration that will allow it to operate a needle-exchange through May 24, 2016.
Scott County, about 30 miles north of Louisville, Ky., is the first to receive state approval for a needle-exchange under the new law that ended Indiana’s ban on needle-exchanges. That law provides for such exchanges if a community proves it’s facing an HIV or hepatitis-C epidemic fueled by intravenous drug use.
State epidemiologist Pam Pontones said Thursday that 160 people have tested positive for HIV since December. Nearly all of those cases have been in the poverty-stricken county.