CRIME

Southern Indiana county to start needle exchange next month

The Associated Press

JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. (AP) — A southern Indiana county plans to start a needle-exchange program aimed at curbing the spread of hepatitis C and HIV after struggling for months to find funding.

FILE - In this April 4, 2015 file photo, a sign points to the entrance of the Community Outreach Center in Austin, Ind. The long decline in HIV infections among white people who inject drugs has stalled, another grim side effect of the nation’s drug abuse epidemic. Health officials released the news Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2016, as part of a call for more use of needle exchange programs. Last year rural Scott County experienced an HIV outbreak, in which more than 100 injection drug users were infected. The state’s governor at the time - Mike Pence, now the vice president-elect - declared a public health emergency and authorized a limited need-exchange program to prevent the virus from spreading further. (Tyler Stewart/News and Tribune via AP)

The Clark County program will begin Jan. 26 at a Jeffersonville site that will be open each Thursday. County health officer Dr. Kevin Burke said he hopes to eventually have the exchange available two days a week and at other locations.

The state health commissioner declared a public health emergency for Clark County in August, allowing it to start the exchange following a 2015 HIV outbreak linked to intravenous drug use in neighboring Scott County. However, Clark County officials didn't have enough money for the program until it received a $7,000 grant in October from the Health Foundation of Greater Indianapolis.

The program will be run largely by volunteer staff, with training sessions set to start in a couple of weeks.

"I wanted the grant fund sort of in-hand before we started training," Burke told the News and Tribune (http://bit.ly/2httqX9 ). "I wanted them to be fresh in their knowledge and abilities — how to deal with this population."

Burke said the program will also help direct people to drug abuse treatment programs and disease screenings.

Needle-exchange programs have been approved for nine of Indiana's 92 counties. The others are Allen, Fayette, Lawrence, Madison, Monroe, Scott, Tippecanoe and Wayne counties.

Legislators approved a law last year allowing counties to request approval for needle-exchange programs in response to the Scott County HIV outbreak — the worst in Indiana history with nearly 190 people infected.

Many counties, however, have had to scramble to find money from nonprofits, foundations, donations or county coffers to run the programs, which provide intravenous drug users with clean syringes and collect used ones to reduce needle-sharing and prevent the spread of HIV, hepatitis C and other diseases.

Republican Gov.-elect Eric Holcomb said during the gubernatorial campaign that drug abuse is strangling many families and communities around Indiana and that he would support the state providing money to operate needle-exchange programs.

Establishing more treatment and prevention programs will also be priorities, he said.

Burke said he expected Clark County now had enough money to run the program for six months.

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Information from: News and Tribune, Jeffersonville, Ind., http://www.newsandtribune.com