article_snippet: Intravenous drug led to infection in almost all cases, according to state epidemiologist Pam Pontones.
article_snippet: state epidemiologist Pam Pontones said staff from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who arrived in the area Monday, agreed with state officials that this outbreak 'is an indicator of a larger problem' of drug use driven by poverty. '
article_snippet: With the amount of drug use that's happening and the intravenous needle-sharing that's going on, if someone who's highly infectious becomes part of that sharing network, that infection can transmit very rapidly,' state epidemiologist Pam Pontones said.
article_snippet: state epidemiologist Pam Pontones said the vast majority of the people who've become infected during this outbreak shared a syringe with someone else while injecting a liquid form of the prescription painkiller Opana.
highlights_snippet: Most of the infected individuals were believed to have injected a liquid form of the painkiller Opana, and shared a syringe with someone else .