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When people started to show up to Dr. William Cooke's primary care office in Austin, Ind., in 2014 with HIV, Cooke knew it was probably related to the region's opioid epidemic. But what he and the rest of the public health community didn't know was who they were missing or how long the HIV outbreak had been going on. Now they've got a clearer picture — literally. In visualizations published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, dots and lines define the constellations of Indiana's HIV outbreak. (Boerner, 1/14)

Don't expect a flurry of needle exchanges to pop up quickly in Northern Kentucky, even after the recently revealed huge upswing in HIV cases among people who inject drugs. The law allowing needle exchanges in Kentucky requires both the host city and county to approve the service. (DeMio, 1/14)

The role that drugmakers and drug distributors played in contributing to the nation’s deadly opioid epidemic is now front and center in a federal courtroom in Cleveland. Judge Dan Polster is overseeing more than 200 lawsuits against drug companies brought by local communities across the country, including those in California, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia. The lawsuits have been consolidated into what is known as “multidistrict litigation,” an approach taken when lawsuits of a similar nature are filed around the country. (Welsh-Huggins, 1/14)

To combat the growing opioid crisis Minnesota needs more funding and flexibility from federal officials to support unique and successful prevention, treatment and law enforcement strategies. That’s the message state experts asked Democratic Sen. Tina Smith to take back to Washington D.C. as federal lawmakers debate the best way to address what has become a public health crisis. (Magan, 1/12)

White residents in Missouri are dying at a higher rate than they did nearly two decades ago, according to a report from the Missouri Foundation for Health. The increased death rate largely is occurring in the state's rural counties, especially in the Ozarks and the Bootheel region and substance abuse appears to be a major factor. For example, deaths by drug overdose have increased by nearly 600 percent in many rural counties. Poor mental health also plays a significant role, as suicides among young and middle-aged adults have increased by 30 percent since 1995. (Chen, 1/15)