Dr. Jerome Adams says he’s concerned about the potential for another HIV outbreak in southeast Indiana now that Scott County has closed its needle exchange. Adams was the former state health commissioner and U.S. Surgeon General. He’s praised the county’s needle exchange for keeping HIV cases low and connecting drug users to recovery services.

But he says many drug users won’t be connected with those services anymore. That increases the likelihood of new HIV cases..and overdoses.  “The simple truth, from a purely scientific point of view, is that all the ingredients still exist in Scott County for us to have another very rapid and very large explosion of HIV. I worry that without that safe space, people are going to be isolated again. And when they’re isolated, they misuse more drugs, they commit more crimes, they actually are more likely to end up in the hospital.”

There are efforts underway to start a privately run needle exchange in the county, but the timeline for when it would be approved and operational is uncertain.