INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ A top state health official says an HIV outbreak that's infected more than two dozen people in five southern Indiana counties is being largely driven by needle-sharing among drug users.
Deputy Health Commissioner Jennifer Walthall said Wednesday that 26 people have tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS since mid-December and another four have preliminary HIV-positive status.
She says most of those individuals are believed to have become infected by sharing needles while injecting a form of the powerful painkiller Opana to get high. A small number have been tied to sexual transmission of the HIV virus.
Walthall says the HIV cases have been confirmed in Clark, Jackson, Perry, Scott and Washington counties.
Five of those infected are prostitutes and 10 others are inmates in local jails or prisons.
