Indiana Warns Truckers of HIV Outbreak on I-65 Corridor in Southern Part of State

Indiana State Dept. of Health

This story appears in the May 4 print edition of Transport Topics.

Truck drivers traveling the Interstate 65 corridor between Louisville, Kentucky, and Indianapolis are being alerted to an HIV outbreak traced to a rural community in southern Indiana.

“On April 24, the state Department of Health reported 135 cases of the virus, 46 more than two weeks ago,” the alert issued to truckers last week by the Indiana Motor Truck Association said. “The outbreak is being spread by needle sharing and sex partners.”

By April 28, the number of HIV confirmed cases along the corridor had jumped to 143, according to Jennifer Walthall, the state’s deputy health commissioner.

Health officials have determined that the point of the outbreak’s origin is in Austin, Indiana, a community of about 4,200 residents in Scott County.

“What’s unusual about this particular outbreak is that it is in a rural area, that we’ve been able to tie it to injection of an oral opioid and that such a large number of people have been infected with HIV in a small community,” Jonathan Mermin, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, said at an April 29 telephone news conference.

Because truckers are considered a sector of the population vulnerable to contracting HIV, the state’s Department of Health is working with travel centers, truck stops and the state trucking association to get the message out.

But neither state nor federal health officials would say how many truckers had tested positive for HIV or for Hepatitis C.

“We’re very concerned about the truck drivers who pass through the area and the I-65 corridor,” health department spokeswoman Amy Reel said. “We developed messaging specific to truck drivers that is just a reminder to avoid risky sexual behavior. Make sure you wear a condom, do not hire commercial sex workers and limit your number of sexual partners.”

Those messages will include highway billboards and posters at an estimated 10 truck stops.

“Because we have evidence that over-the-road truck drivers are particularly susceptible to exposure to HIV-positive persons, we are asking you to cooperate in placing placards and site-based Wi-Fi messaging where truck drivers are most likely to see and read them,” said an April 22 letter from Gov. Mike Pence to travel plaza managers.

“It’s vitally important that truck drivers who pass through southeastern Indiana are aware that there is a very serious and fast-growing outbreak of HIV in the area,” the letter stated. “We are encouraging truck drivers to get tested for HIV and avoid risky sexual behavior.”

Although about 96% of those who tested HIV positive were admitted drug users, a health department statement noted that “some drug users support their habit by becoming commercial sex workers.”

Over the past eight weeks, the health department has been working with the CDC to identify and test anyone who may have come in contact with an HIV-positive person, either through needle-sharing or sexual contact.

A testing and treatment clinic has been set up in Austin as well as a needle sharing center.

“This is an all hands on deck situation,” said State Health Commissioner Jerome Adams.