COVID-19’s Impact On Local Addiction Outreach Efforts

Needle exchange programs can help prevent the spread of diseases like hepatitis and HIV.

By Zach Wilson
Indiana Needle Exchange
In this March 24, 2016 photo, Paula Maupin, the public health nurse for eastern Indiana's Fayette County, discusses the county's state-approved needle exchange program, in the county courthouse in Connersville, Ind. The cash-strapped rural county, which is facing a hepatitis C outbreak among intravenous drug users, is one of the Indiana counties to win state approval for the programs that provide those users with clean needles to reduce needle-sharing as a way to stop the spread of HIV, hepatitis C and other diseases. But Indiana's counties have to find their own funding for their exchanges because state funding is banned from supporting them. Rick Callahan / AP Photo
Indiana Needle Exchange
In this March 24, 2016 photo, Paula Maupin, the public health nurse for eastern Indiana's Fayette County, discusses the county's state-approved needle exchange program, in the county courthouse in Connersville, Ind. The cash-strapped rural county, which is facing a hepatitis C outbreak among intravenous drug users, is one of the Indiana counties to win state approval for the programs that provide those users with clean needles to reduce needle-sharing as a way to stop the spread of HIV, hepatitis C and other diseases. But Indiana's counties have to find their own funding for their exchanges because state funding is banned from supporting them. Rick Callahan / AP Photo

COVID-19’s Impact On Local Addiction Outreach Efforts

Needle exchange programs can help prevent the spread of diseases like hepatitis and HIV.

By Zach Wilson
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Reset learns about needle exchange programs in Chicago and how COVID-19 is affecting them from the reporter behind a recent investigation for the Better Government Association. 

GUEST: Casey Toner, investigative reporter at the Better Government Association