So-called “drug tourism” may be fueling a new outbreak of the HIV virus in Tijuana, which has not abated by the closure of the international border due to the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers at the UC School of Medicine announced Friday. San Diego at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections.
The researchers found that the HIV incidence rate among people who use drugs in Tijuana had increased about 11% per year. The HIV incidence rate for drug users in San Diego who cross the border to buy drugs was found to be lower, but still high compared to the HIV incidence rate among drug users who do not cross the border, for whom the HIV incidence rate was zero.
“These rising rates occurred during a period when the US-Mexico border was closed to non-essential travel,” said Steffanie Strathdee, associate dean for Global Health Sciences, referring to the period between March 2020 and November 2021.
Strathdee said people are crossing the border, often for extended periods, to get cheaper and more accessible medicine.
“Obviously, the virus doesn’t require a passport to spread and walls don’t keep infectious diseases out. We need to strengthen HIV prevention efforts on both sides of the border,” Strathdee said.
According to the researchers, HIV incidence in Tijuana has either remained stable or declined, in part due to a multimillion-dollar effort by the Global Fund for HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria to support syringe exchange programs and other public health measures. but that funding ended in 2013.
Additionally, some Mexican government funding for community organizations providing HIV services to underserved populations was reduced in 2019. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 diverted more resources from HIV prevention and treatment efforts, making make an already vulnerable population even more vulnerable.
“It’s important to understand that public health issues like this are binational in nature,” said Gudelia Rangel, co-director of this study and a researcher at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte and the US-Mexico Border Health Commission. “The virus does not stay in one place and we need to work closely with partners on both sides of the border to find the right resources.”
The researchers said the findings underscore the urgency of restoring and expanding efforts, such as mobile needle-exchange programs and increased access to personalized health services that provide antiviral therapies and pre-exposure prophylaxis, drugs that significantly reduce the chances. of HIV infection for people at high risk.