Thread: Health Officials Concerned Over AIDS Rates In Tijuana

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Health Officials Concerned Over AIDS Rates In Tijuana

POSTED: 4:45 pm PDT May 10, 2006
UPDATED: 7:55 pm PDT 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.

Is this one of the reasons they want AIDS test to be a routien part of a physical now? Scarey news.