LETTER TO THE EDITOR FROM THE SCOTT COUNTY COMMISSIONERS APPEARING IN LOCAL PAPERS THIS PAST WEEKEND. Letter to the Editor: As the Scott County Board of Commissioners we want to express our concerns, thank a fong list of people ‘and discuss the future of Scott County in regard to the HIV outbreak. Our attempt to do all of this in these few words will not be adequate. We ask that you accept our attempt to accomplish the task. Our county now has 166 people that are HIV positive. For those infected, we express our deepest concern. We kno health concerns and economic burden on these individuals is beyond our imagination. Our prayers are for these people. We also know that with treatment, these pepe will ror die from this virus but will die with the virus, Some have suggested and some are certain that these ‘numbers will increase as the spread of HIV moves from the IV drug community into the heterosexual community, We pray that others do not suffer this and that HIV can be contained. ‘As Commissioners, we have o responsibilty to the County Health Department which is operated by the County ‘Board of Health The Board members of the Health Department are appointed by the Commissioners. We have many in the Scott County Heaith Department to thank for their extraordinary effort in combating these problems. Since notification on February 23, 2015, by the State Department of Heolth of the very high number of HIV, we have placed a great burden on our County Health Department, Brittany Combs, Patti Hall and Jil Hough have worked tirelessly. For most of the recent three month period, they have taken the lead in the needle exchange and HIV testing, Working mostly seven days a week and sixteen hour days, they have sacrificed themselves to this effort. Ron Murphy as ‘Administrator and Dr. Kevin Rogers as County Health Officer have coordinated with the County Board of Health and with other local, state and federal health providers and agencies. Our county has asked so much of these few and we have received more than asked or expected. Thank you. Within days of the notification from the Indiana State Department of Health, the state government was ‘mobilized to help us with this problem. Governor Mike Pence acting through the Health Commissioner. Dr. Jerome Adams, established a Crisis Center in Austin. This effort was locally led by Megan Sarvs, Bryan Carnes, and Kerry Cook. The County Outreach Center in Austin has combined the services of the needle exchange with the BMV, Vital Records, HIV Testing, Mental Health, Family Services, Care Coordination (HIV) and Workforce Development. The dedication of these state and local agencies and the employees and volunteers have provided services to help identify and slow the spread of HIV in Scott County. In adtition to these efforts, our county has continuously been aided by the Center for Disease Control (COC). In order to support this effort, lunches were provided daily by the Kimberlin Creek Baptist Church, Lexington Presbyterian Church, First Baptist Church of Scottsburg, First Baptist Church of Austin ‘and Zoah Christian Church. Many thanks. in addition to the efforts at the County Qutreach Center in Austin, our county has received extraordinary support from two other focal organizations. Scott ‘Memorial Hospital, through the Administrator, Mike Everit, and the stoff, hos worked tirelessly with our Health Department and with other agencies in order to provide services to deal with the HIV crisis, It hashelped to support the needle exchange and has provided other supplies and equipment needed to deal with the outbreak and spread of HIV. We have received extraordinary help from LifeSpring. LifeSpring plans to provide and expand continuous and focused services for the HIV patients and HIV positive individuals. The resources and treatment options through LifeSpring will make a major and significant difference for the folks of Scott County. Again we thank these state and local officials and organizations. Because of the unprecedented nature of this problem, we fully expect that the State of Indiana will continue to provide support and advice. The Scott County Jail is, potentially, the largest, single potential liability for the budget of our county. The potential lability ests because the county Is responsible forthe health costs of every inmate. Thot cancelled for every incarcerated inmate. If we are expected to provide HIV treatment for every HIV positive inmate, the cost could be @ staggering llablity. Sheriff Dan McClain has estimated that ‘approximately 10% of his inmates will be HIV positive for the foreseeable future. Thankfully Sheriff McClain has organized a program for the jail to provide for their HIV medical care and to provide for other services upon release from incarceration which would include a broad range of addiction services, ‘mental health services, and hopefully job placement. Some of this population, as well as other members of our community, are certainly not going to be compliant with a program that prescribes drugs on a regular basis to control the level of the virus or to help with treatment. Only time wil tell if we are at some point facing inmates or other people in our community that move from simply being HIV positive to AIDS. We are grateful for the accomplishments of our Sheriff. ‘As Commissioners, we are certainly awore that there are many organizations in our county that can : make important decisions and take an active role in helping our community. We are blessed by having active organizations like CEASE, The Scott County Partnership, Lifespan, New Hope Services and a coalition of churches that can provide great support for the needs of our community. In addition to these kinds of organizations we also have the strong arms of the two cities of Scott County and their leadership. We certainly encourage all the organizations that have an interest to participate. There is some concern about the fact that in some areas we will have overlapping services. It may be best to have overlapping services as opposed to no services. Coordination of these services and interests might be served by a simple concern for each other and a concern for fellow interested organizations. However, we do not want to promote the need for an additional bureaucracy and we want to avoid the possibility that there is an unhealthy competition. The level of HIV positive cases in the United States is approximately 80 per 100,000 in population. Currently as we pointed out earlier Scott County has in excess of 166 In a population of 24,000. This emphasizes the fact that we are at levels that have never been dealt with before in a rural or urban environment, No other community in this country has faced such an issue. Because of that, there are ‘many things that can be done but nobody can give us a roadmap for what will work. We ore firmly committed to having a Health Department that can function in this environment and get results as ‘opposed to a waste of taxpayer dollars just because a program sounds good but it is in fact not supported by appropriate data ond information. Some in our county have suggested that the HIVpopulation will continue to grow. As HIV is spread through heterasexual contact, there is the possibility that we could see numbers that continue to climb. However, the CDC, so far, has not been able to determine if that is true, We also are faced with some pessimism about the property values going forward and that could impact our ability to support our county and city governments and also our schools. We certainly hope that this is an inappropriately pessimistic approach. We will continue to be concerned for the safety of our citizens and we would certainly hope that we can find ways to curb destructive behavior and also find ways to provide all the assistance necessary to make all of our citizens healthy and productive. Going forward, we are appreciative for the sacrifices that many have made for the health of our ‘community. We apologize agatirif we have not included somebody ir-our list: Wwe definitely understand that we cannot possibly have covered everybody that should have been thanked and praised. We ‘approach this now with the understanding that there are many good things happening in our community that we should be proud of. Opportunities for employment continue to grow. We believe that we see signs of an economy that is stronger and more viable. We have great faith in community organizations that take such an active role in our community. in short, we are very optimistic about the future of our county. We do not think for one minute that we will not have some obstacles and bumps in the road. For the most part, we are very optimistic. The Board of Commissioners of the County of Scott Larry Blevins Robert Tobias Kelley Robbins