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.