Brown asks governor: ‘Where is the concern for HIV problems in Lake, Marion Counties?’
For immediate release:
March 26, 2015
INDIANAPOLIS – State Rep. Charlie Brown (D-Gary) today issued the following statement after Gov. Mike Pence announced he has declared a public health emergency in Scott County in southern Indiana due to an outbreak of HIV:
“It is commendable that the governor has seen fit to declare this emergency, but I cannot help but take note of his declaration that nearly 80 confirmed cases of HIV in Scott County represents a problem for all of Indiana, not just Scott County.
“That may be true, but HIV has been a problem in Indiana long before this crisis took place in one county in the southern part of our state.
“There are close to 1,700 identified cases of HIV in Lake County. There are somewhere around 4,700 cases of HIV confirmed in Marion County.
“To my recollection, there has been no effort to declare a public health emergency in either of those areas, even though the numbers are substantially larger than in Scott County. Why is that the case?
“Certainly the provisions of the emergency declared in Scott County would be helpful to the health officials in Lake and Marion Counties: incident command centers, a coordinated response that involves the health care, law enforcement and emergency response communities, and designing and implementing a targeted, short-term needle exchange program to contain the epidemic.
“Yet I am not aware that such actions have taken place in either Lake or Marion Counties. Why not?
“Let me be clear. The steps being taken in Scott County are a necessary and correct response to a terrible situation.
“Yet this governor’s inability to realize that similar steps are needed in two of Indiana’s largest counties is highly disturbing.
“At my first opportunity, I intend to ask the governor to implement similar measures in Lake and Marion Counties. Certainly those folks deserve the same concern as the unfortunate cases in Scott County.
“This is one of the reasons I support an amendment to Senate Bill 461 that was discussed in the House Public Health Committee meeting yesterday—an amendment that would help answer this problem by providing syringes and needles to address the threat posed by the sharing of these items.”