AUSTIN, Ind. (AP) _ Indiana health officials trying to contain an HIV outbreak tied to needle-sharing among drug users are getting helping from specialists from other states in tracking down about 130 additional people who also may be infected.
Deputy State Health Commissioner Jennifer Walthall said Tuesday that five disease-intervention specialists from states including Virginia, Colorado and Missouri are helping Indiana officials track down people who may have shared needles or had unprotected sex with those who have tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS. She says their assistance is “absolutely essential'' to helping contain the outbreak.
Walthall says 135 people already have tested positive for HIV in southern Indiana. That number includes six preliminary positives.
The outbreak is centered in Scott County, about 30 miles north of Louisville, Kentucky.
