Wayne County Health Department Director Eric Coulter told the County Council last week that the department's board is moving closer to asking the state health commissioner to approve a needle exchange for the county under the law that legislators approved this spring.

Ravaged by one of the worst outbreaks of HIV in recent history and an underlying epidemic of injection drug addiction, a small rural community of Austin is changing fast as it grapples with the fallout of the crisis.

The Indiana State Department of Health says that 166 people have now tested positive for HIV in southern Indiana. Most of the cases have been linked to injection drug abuse.

Scott County is the epicenter of an ongoing HIV outbreak in southern Indiana. As of Monday, 158 people had tested positive for the virus, mostly due to injection drug abuse.

Under new legislation passed just a couple weeks ago, any county in the state can go through a formal process to legalize exchanges. And Scott County has already gotten the ball rolling.

Legislation that would allow needle exchanges in some Indiana counties cleared the House Public Health Committee on Monday.

The governor has said he opposes clean needle exchanges as a drug addiction-fighting strategy, but is making an exception in the case of Scott County, where the number of cases has now grown to 79 since the outbreak was first identified.

Rep. Ed Clere, R-New Albany, plans to introduce an amendment on Wednesday that would permit the distribution of clean needles to IV drug users.

The outbreak has been concentrated in Scott County. Dr. Kevin Burke of the Clark County Health Department, which handles HIV cases for the region, says his team has confirmed 51 cases as of Wednesday afternoon. Fifteen other people have been flagged through preliminary screenings.

Last Wednesday, the Indiana State Health Department declared an HIV outbreak in southeastern Indiana. All of the cases were linked to IV drug abuse, specifically of the powerful prescription narcotic, Opana.