Indiana Declares Health Emergency after Uptick of New HIV Cases

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/27/us/indiana-declares-health-emergency-after-hiv-outbreak.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=1

Indiana Governor Mike Pence has called for action regarding 80 new HIV cases in the state. Most of the cases are found in the south east region, Scott County, and are linked to improper needle usage.

I remember when people were getting pissy about the Health Department in NYC handing out flyers regarding heroin usage, ie properly throwing away the needles after use. While I'm not in favor of legalizing every drug, I do agree that there should be a policy in telling the people the risks, benefits, and background of any drug, whether it's skeet, marijuana, or viagra. It's better than some knobhead politician jingoistic rampage demonizing any illicit substance to a point where they become forbidden fruit. Knowing is half the battle, and propaganda does have a limit in its usefulness.

i say this has nothing to do with needles   its more like who we are bringing into our states.   I do wonder though  if  we bring people from overseas here and they have too many  diseases to work in public  (tb ect ect ect)   but its fine for their children to go  into the public school systems.  Something does not add up there

Racism sure have a sneaky way of showing up in threads that has nothing to do with race

Be extra careful who you Indianans.

Finger_Shocker said:

Racism sure have a sneaky way of showing up in threads that has nothing to do with race

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LOL racism whatever. Point is how can they not work yet their children are allowed to go to public school wouldnt that be a health risk as well (all im asking)

just find it funny how they are trying to link this to needles like unsafe needle useage just happen to jump at the same time.

slidecage said:

i say this has nothing to do with needles its more like who we are bringing into our states. I do wonder though if we bring people from overseas here and they have too many diseases to work in public (tb ect ect ect) but its fine for their children to go into the public school systems. Something does not add up there

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You, sir, are a weapons-grade moron. The official declaration (if you had taken the time to click through the link in the article before posting your xenophobic rant) said "All [emphasis mine] cases are linked to injection drug abuse."

Your uninformed stance was taken most recently by those who claimed unvaccinated foreigners were the cause of the recent measles outbreak that originated on the west coast, and that was patently false too. It is a philosophy espoused by the far right in their immigration policies as well.

You do know that school age children are required to be vaccinated unless they have a medical or religious exemption, right? Do you know how few exemptions are ever granted, especially for religious reasons, in public schools? It's almost non-existent. That's because the evangelical crowd that would usually claim such exemptions also like to home-school their children to keep their minds free of bad influences like science and truth. No schools as far as I know allow vaccination exemptions merely for purely philosophical, scientific, moral, personal, or medical opposition to vaccinations, Jenny McCarthy and her ilk be damned. Most states don't even allow religious exemptions in times of emergency or epidemic as determined by their State Boards of Health and declared (like Indiana's cited in the original article) by that state's Director of Public Health or the governor.

Lastly, to refute your fallacious assertion that "unsafe needle usage just happened to jump at the same time" isn't somehow directly correlated to the HIV epidemic, the prescription drug cited in the article (Opana, generically called oxymorphone, since you obviously weren't paying attention) has just within the last three to four years become popular as an illicit street drug, since other drugs like Oxycontin were changed in 2010 so that people who crushed and then snorted or injected the extended release tablets didn't get the high they were seeking. Oxymorphone is even stronger and has a higher potential for addiction than Oxycontin. In fact, Reuters ran an article about this very problem affecting this exact location in Indiana back in 2012. Here's a link to that article so you can educate yourself : http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/27/us-drugs-abuse-opana-idUSBRE82Q04120120327 .

Intravenous drug users run in tight social circles, and those in their social circles are usually IV drug abusers as well. Studies (including this quick citation: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11470340 ) have shown that "among injectors, whites [emphasis mine]...were more likely to share needles." So you can see, your fear of the "other" is completely irrational and unjustified. This spike in HIV cases in Indiana has nothing to do with "who we are bringing into our states." It's a completely homegrown problem.

This is just natural selection at its best. Share needles with HIV infected junkies? Surprise!!!! You're now an HIV infested junkie.

I would say that if you're not drugging or banging someone who has been effected you'll be alright. The epidemic is that people are 1) dumb enough to shoot drugs 2) dumb enough to share needles. 

The upside is that nature has found a way to take care of this.

Well, lots of White people live in Indiana, and a lot of heroin addicts are White People, and the current measles/polio/smallpox epidemic is because of White parents who refuse to vaccinate their children. Sure, go ahead and scapegoat all you want, because the problems aren't going away.

Aren't there needle exchange programs in most states still?

Another reason there could be a large outbreak is prostitution. Men and women who are looking for a fix will do whatever they need to do to get it. It's not just sharing needles that is spreading the disease.

Finger_Shocker said:

Racism sure have a sneaky way of showing up in threads that has nothing to do with race

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No joke dude. Sometimes it seems like every thread.

GBAstar said:

This is just natural selection at its best. Share needles with HIV infected junkies? Surprise!!!! You're now an HIV infested junkie.

I would say that if you're not drugging or banging someone who has been effected you'll be alright. The epidemic is that people are 1) dumb enough to shoot drugs 2) dumb enough to share needles.

The upside is that nature has found a way to take care of this.

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I think sometimes is that the carrier of HIV doesn't even know they are sick, so neither do their sex partners or their needle buddies. I don't know what exactly happens when you get it, but like many diseases, I figure it affects everyone differently. Some people show symptoms, some are perfectly fine for a while.

irideabike said:

Aren't there needle exchange programs in most states still?

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They only work if they get used. If you're looking to get loaded, it's no big deal to use your buddy's rig.

First of all the major county hit is Scott County which is about 30 miles from Louisville, KY.  In reality it is worse though than it is made to look like.  Scott County only figured this out because it's probation department was requiring all people they managed to take tests for STDs and the local health department caught wind of it obviously.  In reality it is a problem in all of Southern Indiana.  Blame the feds for cracking down on pills.  Pills may be bad but when people were getting high on them they were not using dirty needles and the death rate from OD was WAY less.  Now that the feds have cut back on pills, the dope fiends are switching to heroin because it is dirt cheap at about $10 a hit.  The justice system has created this problem and our lovely governor (sarcasm fully invoked) was so short sighted he didn't even do anything till it hit the level of a crisis.  Then again who is surprised.  This is the same dip stick that passed that "religious freedom act" that nobody here actually seemed to want.

So is there any relief over there yet, or it's only a few brave doctors trying to control it, but the neglectful state government decides to give it a pass cause those infected are usually poors?

Well, I did read this: http://time.com/3853590/indiana-hiv-epidemic/

The governor finally created a temporary needle exchange but the problem is that with it being temporary druggies are not going to trust it.  Keep in mind druggies are all buddies a lot of the time and these are close nit communities of people.  Also only about 80% I think are tied to drug use.  What a lot of people fail to realize is that these people go out and hump others and pass this crap around.

The sad thing is that Indiana is such a backwards red state and the criminal justice system is only worried about punishment instead of rehabilitation.  I don't doubt that some of them probably see this as a good thing for "thining the ranks of criminals" or some crap like this.  Go talk to a police officer, prosecutor, or probation officer and you will see a large part of the problem.  To these people, these are "animals" not people.