Are Indiana police sabotaging attempts to contain the HIV outbreak?

Are Indiana police sabotaging attempts to contain the HIV outbreak?

The tracks on Kevin Polly’s arms tell the story of his long struggle with intravenous drug abuse.

“Most of this is Oxycontin track marks,” he says, his fingers tracing the scars. “The part with my neck, that’s new. That’s Opana.”

Opana, also known as Oxymorphone, is a highly addictive opiate and the drug of choice among IV drug users in Austin, Indiana.

“There ain’t nothing like it,” says Polly. “It’s sick, but true.”

Polly is also the face of a new epidemic: an explosion of HIV infections among IV drug users in Scott County, near the Kentucky border and one of the poorest counties in the state. The Indiana State Department of Health says that over 100 people have tested positive for the disease in the last four months, 20 times the normal rate for a whole year.

Nearly all of the new cases are linked to IV drug users sharing dirty needles. Polly says that clean needles are hard to find. Under Indiana State Law, possession of a needle without a legitimate medical use is a felony punishable by up to three years in prison.

“We had to use the same needle over and over again because you just couldn't find them,” says Polly.

The lack of needles contributed to practices that ultimately spread disease.

“It was nothing to share a needle," he says. "As long as we got the Opana in us, it didn’t matter.”

Polly found out that he was HIV positive six weeks ago.