In a small Indiana community, two out of every five residents are considered highly vulnerable to HIV infection. Now, the community has reached out to BC experts in hope of help.

Austin, Ind. has faced an unprecedented outbreak of the disease. Diane Janowicz, assistant professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine said that it has a population of 4,200, out of which 10% are presently injecting prescription opioid drugs every day. Around 184 new HIV infections have been identified since last year.

Dr. Janowicz said that 39% of the population has been identified as high risk, which is an extremely high prevalence in comparison to other parts in the US.

The university has been working along with the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and has not asked for help from the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. The motive is to make the centre bring its so-called ‘treatment-as-prevention’ model of health care to the attacked community. The model is a collection of antiretroviral treatments that decrease the HIV virus load in blood and vaginal and rectal fluids, to reduce HIV transmission risk.

Since the introduction of an intense antiretroviral therapy program that started in 1996, BC has noticed a steady reduction in the number of deaths caused by HIV. A 90% decrease has been seen in the number of new cases since 30 years back. As of 2015, just 250 HIV cases were recorded in BC.

The outbreak started in Austin last year and was associated with intravenous injection of opiate pain medication that users crush. Due to this, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning, alerting health officials to stay watchful against clusters of HIV and hepatitis C infections.

Julio Montaner, director of the BC Centre for Excellence of AIDS/HIV, said, “Indiana University will bring their colleagues here to see how we implemented our strategies in British Columbia, to learn about our treatment programs and to see how we have made the improvement happen”.