Almost all 80 cases confirmed or suspected to be positive have come out of Scott clinics in the north of the state . The town of Austin has been hard hit , and a local clinic says poor residents are unable to pay for treatment . needle exchanges , where intravenous drug users can trade needle syringes for clean ones , are believed to be useful in preventing the spread of HIV . State legislators have opposed initiatives for needle exchanges in the past . Most of the infected individuals were reported to have injected a liquid form of the painkiller Opana , and shared a syringe with someone else .
Almost all 80 cases confirmed or believed to be positive have come out of Scott County in the south of the state . The town of Austin has been hard hit , and a local clinic says poor residents are unable to pay for treatment . Needle exchanges , where intravenous drug users can trade used syringes for clean ones , are believed to be useful in combating the spread of HIV . State legislators have opposed initiatives for needle exchanges in the past . Most of the infected individuals were believed to have injected a liquid form of the painkiller Opana , and shared a syringe with someone else .