The Indiana State Department of Health is outlining a plan to transition from crisis response to long-term HIV treatment and prevention in Southeastern Indiana, where an HIV outbreak has infected 170 people, most of them in Scott County.
"We're not leaving Scott County," State Health Commissioner Jerome Adams insisted during a press conference Wednesday. "We're not passing the baton, we're trying to figure out how to run together."
The state plans to continue hosting a "one-stop-shop" clinic once a week in Austin, the small town that was the epicenter of the outbreak. ISDH is also adding several health services providers, including two care coordinators, one disease intervention specialist, and additional jail nurses.
However, state officials say counties should not rely on federal and state dollars to improve their health care or prevent epidemics. Instead, the health department is working with local organizations to try to identify and raise awareness about existing resources in Scott County and in other high-risk communities across Indiana.
Deputy State Health Commissioner Jennifer Walthall highlighted several on-going efforts during a press conference, such as the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis, an evidence-based tool that puts people who are at high-risk for HIV on medicine to prevent further spread of the virus.
Walthall also says ISDH is working on locating all the relevant services in Austin, and it should be known in a few days whether the services will be housed in a single building, or several places within walking distance.
"The main component of making this built-in process work is that these services have to be located in Austin so patients can access them at the point where they need them and where they are relevant," Walthall says.
The Community Outreach Center currently in Austin has seen 1,085 visitors and conducted 331 HIV tests as of June 11.
Health officials say the number of new cases each week is significantly decreasing, but they warn the problem is not going away anytime soon.
"Cases of HIV in this community will remain there for the next 40 to 50 years," Commissioner Adams said, indicating a re-occurrence of an HIV outbreak is likely if the area does not improve its health systems.
The state has yet to locate 46 people believed to be at risk for HIV. Another 21 have refused testing.
At the press conference, Adams responded to a question of whether the state would likely approve needle-exchange programs in other counties. Counties must be designated in a "state of emergency" under new legislation before they can do so.
"A needle exchange is harm reduction," Adams said. "What I would really like to do is focus on prevention. Just because we find that there's an epidemic in an area, doesn't automatically mean a needle exchange needs to be or must be part of that response, or that the locals after a discuss of the determination of other resources, will determine for themselves that that's what they want for their response."
Sylvia Bao, Drew Daudelin and Gretchen Frazee contributed to this report.
