US opioid epidemic

A small town in Indiana that otherwise would remain largely unknown has hit the front page of many national news publications recently. The entire nation in the throes of an opioid epidemic, gripping communities in every state, from coast to coast and away from the continental United States, too. Rural communities have been particularly plagued with this dangerous addiction epidemic. So what makes Austin, Indiana any different?

Government and health officials in and around Austin, Indiana always stressed the same: this town is the same as any other rural town in the country that is facing the opioid epidemic. Austin a small town that has only 4,000 residents, sitting 40 miles north of Louisville, Kentucky - nothing too extraordinary at first glance. However, in February of last year, the first 30 cases of HIV were reported in Austin, and that number swelled to 55 cases of HIV by mid-March 2015.

Initially, state health officials and those from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were perplexed and looking for answers as to why an HIV epidemic was erupting in the small town, where many residents still viewed HIV as a modern-age disease that is kept primarily to places like New York City and San Francisco. A year after the initial outbreak, the town of Austin has 190 cases of HIV.

Austin, Indiana faces many of the same issues that exist all over the country, particularly in pockets where opioid use is also particularly high. Austin is an economically depressed town with many shops and homes boarded up, with less than 10 percent of the residents having earned a college degree. About 20 percent of Austin residents live below the poverty line, which adds up to more than 150 percent the rate seen across the state of Indiana.

The situation can seem to be in a self-fulfilling loop. Poverty and a lack of access to opportunities and jobs feed addiction, in this case opioid addiction that includes heroin use. In many cases, people who use heroin will share needles with other users they are with, and sharing used needles is a good way to quickly spread disease that transmits via blood and other bodily fluids - like HIV. Austin, Indiana unwittingly went from one of many towns in America facing an opioid abuse epidemic, to a poster town for the drug use-related spread of disease.

It is no secret that addiction destroys everything, including relationships with friends and family, opportunity, and health. Before, when it was said that drug use will ruin a person’s health, people typically were referring to the detrimental effects of the drug itself. Austin, Indiana is an unfortunate reminder that drug use can have even greater consequences than are usually advertised, and it can ruin a life in unimaginable ways.