Indiana Gov. Mike Pence has declared a public health emergency late Thursday for a county that has nearly 80 confirmed cases of HIV, all linked to drug abuse.
Scott County in southeastern Indiana is the center of the outbreak where health officials have identified 79 confirmed cases of HIV since late January. The county normally only gets about five new HIV cases a year, the governor said in a statement.
“All cases are linked to injection drug abuse. This is an epidemic,” the Republican governor said.
The emergency declaration frees up resources for the county.
A medical team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention arrived in the county on Monday to help with the outbreak and more personnel are expected to get to the state next week.
Indiana also started a short-term needle exchange program that officials hope will contain the outbreak.
Scott County ranked last among all Indiana counties in a ranking of health outcomes conducted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
