BajaNews
Super Moderator
Posts: 1439
Registered: 12-11-2005
Member Is Offline
|
|
HIV/AIDS Rates in Tijuana, Mexico Increasing at Alarming Rate
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/518368/
Newswise ? A study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine indicates that the rate of HIV/AIDS infection
in Tijuana, Mexico is increasing, and much higher than had been previously estimated. The findings are based on data compiled by a team of researchers
working in San Diego and Mexico to create a population-based model in order to estimate HIV infection rates.
The number of men and women aged 15 to 49 years who are infected with HIV may be as high as one in 125 persons, according to Kimberly C. Brouwer,
Ph.D., Assistant Professor in UCSD?s Division of International Health and Cross-Cultural Medicine and the Department of Family and Preventive
Medicine. Brouwer?s study will be published in the March 1 issue of The Journal of Urban Health, a bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine.
Located directly south of San Diego California, Tijuana is a city of 1.2 million people located amidst the busiest land border crossing in the world.
Data in this study suggest that Tijuana?s HIV infection rate may be close to three times higher than Mexico?s national average. The United Nations
AIDS Program considers an HIV epidemic to advance from a low level to a concentrated epidemic when more than 1% of the population is infected ? a
figure that Tijuana may soon approach if preventive steps aren?t taken, according to researchers.
?Intervention and prevention on both sides of the border are urgently needed, because of the high mobility between Tijuana and San Diego County,? said
Brouwer, adding that high-risk groups ? men who have sixx with men, injection drugs users, sex workers and pregnant women ? are of particular concern.
The aim of the UCSD study, conducted along with collaborators in Mexico, was to estimate the number of men and women in Tijuana, aged 15 to 49 years,
infected with HIV. This is the age group assumed to be at the highest risk of contracting the HIV infection. The bi-national team of researchers ?
including researchers at the municipal, state and federal level ? used recently published reports, community-based studies and data from Mexico?s
National Center for the Prevention and Control of HIV, extrapolated with population estimates based on the 2000 Mexican census.
The dramatic rise in HIV infection may be linked to a number of factors including Tijuana?s proximity to the United States, which creates economic
opportunities that attract migrants from elsewhere Mexico. Such migration is linked to lower socio-economic status, social and political alienation,
lower awareness of HIV/AIDS and, for some, the need to turn to substance use and sex work to fill the perceived void ? all contributing factors that
can lead to increased vulnerability to HIV infection.
Although homosexual/bisexual men continue to be the groups most affected by HIV/AIDS in the border region, needle sharing among injection drug users
leads to increased HIV infection, and Tijuana is on a major drug-trafficking route. The model used in the study suggests that injection drug use and
sex trade may be driving the HIV epidemic in Tijuana. The population?s mobility is also a consideration; 64% of Tijuana residents report crossing the
border into the United States at least once a month.
?HIV prevention should be considered a public health priority,? said Brouwer. She notes that Mexico is taking many of the right steps in that
direction. ?For instance, screening of expectant mothers has become more common, with more than 95% of women delivering babies at Tijuana General
agreeing to rapid screening and intervention. If a mother tests positive for HIV infection, antiretroviral medicine can be administered to reduce the
risk of HIV infection from being passed on to her infant.?
Health officials in Mexico and the U.S. agree that expansion of free and voluntary HIV screening and counseling are needed.
?Other studies by this team reveal that only half of female sex workers and one third of injection drug users in Tijuana have ever had an HIV test,?
said Carlos Magis-Rodriguez, M.D., M.P.H., co-author of the study and Director of Epidemiology at CENSIDA, Mexico?s federal HIV/AIDS agency. ?Simple
steps, such as proper use of condoms and increasing the availability of sterile syringes, can make a major difference in fighting this epidemic,? said
Steffanie Strathdee, Ph.D., Chief of the Division of International Health and Cross-Cultural Medicine at UCSD, where the study was conducted.
|
|
|
bajarich
Nomad
Posts: 464
Registered: 1-13-2005
Member Is Offline
|
|
Getting more for you money in Mexico!
|
|
|
BajaNews
Super Moderator
Posts: 1439
Registered: 12-11-2005
Member Is Offline
|
|
Major AIDS crisis may hit Tijuana, report says
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20060302-9...
Researchers on both sides of border urge fast action
By Cheryl Clark
March 2, 2006
Tijuana, long thought to have a relatively small prevalence of HIV infection, is on the cusp of an alarming AIDS outbreak rivaling those experienced
by many major U.S. cities, including San Diego, with as many as one in 125 people ages 15 to 49 now infected.
That's the conclusion of a new report from the University of California San Diego and Mexican researchers, who predict a public health crisis in
Tijuana if steps aren't taken quickly.
The researchers looked at current infection rates in groups engaging in low-to high-risk behaviors and compared them with similar statistics from the
1990s. The findings were then extrapolated to the 686,000 people in Tijuana ages 15 to 49. It was concluded that 1,803 to 5,472 in that age bracket
are infected, or up to one in 125 people.
?This suggests we may be on the verge of a major HIV-AIDS outbreak in Tijuana,? said Steffanie Strathdee, chief of UCSD's division of international
health and cross-cultural medicine and the principal author of the report.
?HIV prevention efforts and treatment should be a priority in the border region, but no one has been paying attention to this problem,? she said.
?Interventions to reduce ongoing spread of HIV are urgently needed.?
The rate of one in 125 mirrors the rate for the same age group in San Diego County, according to statistics from the county Office of AIDS
Coordination and the San Diego Association of Governments.
The UCSD and Mexican study was co-written by Kimberly Brouwer, a UCSD assistant professor, and several researchers with Mexico's AIDS prevention
agency in Mexico City. It was published in the February Journal of Urban Health.
The study found the following increases in infection since the 1990s:
Among female sex workers, infection went from five per 1,000 to 48 per 1,000, or 4.8 percent of sex workers.
Among injection drug users, the rate went from 20 per 1,000 to as many as 65 per 1,000, or 6.5 percent of drug users.
- Among men who have sixx with men, the rate increased from 12 percent to 19 percent.
- Among pregnant women, generally considered to be in a low-risk category, HIV infection rates rose from one per 1,000 to 11 per 1,000, or 1.1
percent.
?No one ever guessed we would see a prevalence rate of 1 percent in pregnant women,? said Strathdee, who said the findings ?alarmed? both U.S. and
Mexican researchers doing the study. ?That's when UNAIDS (the United Nations AIDS program) says a problem is becoming a generalized epidemic.?
With little money to test and counsel those infected, much less provide treatment, the problem is destined to get worse before it gets better, she
said.
Tijuana had been thought of as not in danger of an AIDS epidemic because of the perception that it has relatively few intravenous drug users and gay
men, several San Diego AIDS experts have long acknowledged.
But Strathdee said the warning signs are becoming more evident in part because of the city's growing number of infected sex workers.
In her report, she mentioned a 2004 study that ?found that female sex workers in Tijuana seldom negotiated the use of condoms, had a low knowledge
regarding the proper use of condoms and did not like to use condoms with clients because they were perceived as uncomfortable.?
Strathdee said: ?People don't have an understanding of the level of risks that are going on. In this city, prostitution is quasi-legal and there are
6,000 to 10,000 intravenous drug users. It also is a major drug-trafficking route.?
Tijuana men who have sixx with men do so on both sides of the border, which she described as easy to cross.
Dr. George Lemp, director of the state-funded Universitywide AIDS Research Program, said there have been hints that HIV infections have ?been
expanding among Mexican migrants in California,? where studies have noted a ?tremendous? increase in high-risk behaviors.
?This new Tijuana study is further evidence that concern is warranted,? Lemp said. ?There needs to be more collaborative effort between Mexican local
and federal governments and California government and academic institutions? to identify and control the spread.
Terry Cunningham, head of the county Office of AIDS Coordination, agreed with the need for more collaboration.
?We've always considered the possibility that there can be an increase in Tijuana AIDS infections,? he said, adding that his office will ?look at the
study more closely and see how we can collaborate with our partners across the border.?
Mexican agencies that participated in the research included Centro Nacional para la Prevencion y Control del VIH/SIDA in Mexico City and the Instituto
Nacional de Salud Publica of Cuernavaca.
|
|
|
BajaNews
Super Moderator
Posts: 1439
Registered: 12-11-2005
Member Is Offline
|
|
Health Officials Concerned Over AIDS Rates In Tijuana
http://www.10news.com/health/9194682/detail.html
May 10, 2006
Tijuana is a growing metropolis of more than 3 million people.
Its culture attracts thousands of tourists every day, but before your next visit there, you should be aware of a growing health risk: AIDS.
10News takes a look at the problem and the joint effort between health officials in San Diego and across the border as they work together to control
this dangerous virus.
Tijuana, long thought to have a relatively small prevalence of HIV infections, is on the verge of an alarming AIDS outbreak rivaling those experienced
by many major American cities including San Diego.
?Any health concern issue in Mexico or on this side becomes important to health officials on both sides of the border,? said University of California,
San Diego International Health Researcher Dr. Kimberly Brouwer.
Tijuana now has the highest AIDS rate in Mexico.
What is alarming is the prevalence is much higher than a decade ago.
Tijuana may be on the verge of a major HIV-AIDS outbreak.
With San Diego?s close proximity, the concern is the outbreak could cross the border.
That is why UCSD researchers, along with Tijuana health officials and healthcare workers, are in Tijuana?s seamy Red Light District trying to prevent
the spread of AIDS.
People from both sides of the border engage in sexual tourism.
It is big business and the sex workers and their clients are at high risk.
Health officials there are trying to control the situation by regularly testing sex workers for sexually transmitted disease.
UCSD donated a recreational vehicle called the ?PreveMovile,? so healthcare workers and volunteers can give sex workers condoms to prevent the spread
of disease.
Some of the staff consist former drug users, people from the streets who really understand difficult situations that these people live in.
On one particular day, volunteers handed out more than 5,000 condoms in less than an hour.
?The important thing about the PreveMovile is we go to them,? said AIDS prevention Dr. Remevos Locava. ?We build some trust so they can approach us
later.?
But it is not just sexual contact that is spreading the virus.
Nearly 500 men, women and children live in makeshift neighborhoods around the area.
Many of the residents are drug users.
Once a week, the PreveMovile, makes a stop to the neighborhoods.
?Right now, I am trying to be in rehab,? Juan Alvarez, a heroin addict, told 10News.
A volunteer, once a former injection drug user himself, showed Juan how to clean a needle.
Healthcare workers and researchers from both sides of the border are united in this international health crisis.
They have good reason to be.
What worries health officials on both sides of the border is the dramatic increase of HIV during the last decade.
During the last decade, the rate of HIV in the United States leveled off or slowed down in most areas.
Another issue is the lack of health services and testing in Tijuana compared to American cities.
The UCSD and Mexican study was published in the February issue of the Journal of Urban Health.
|
|
|
shari
Select Nomad
Posts: 13048
Registered: 3-10-2006
Location: bahia asuncion, baja sur
Member Is Offline
Mood: there is no reality except the one contained within us "Herman Hesse"
|
|
Hey folks, it aint just TJ, I lived in Guerrero Negro for 10 years and doctors there say AIDS is of epidemic proportions as well due to the army base
there...which means over a thousand young guys all looking for love on their nights in town and infecting many of the local young women there...the
men often settle with transvestites(other men) when they can't pick up a girl in town and thus get infected themselves...it's out of control...be
careful in the cantinas guys as those ladies usually aren't female at all and many tourists got a big surprise!...ojo...mucho ojo.
|
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xmbforum/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
