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The Use Of Drugs

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Drug shipment “spillover” across the U.S.– Mexico border results in increased drug availability in border cities (Wagner et al.,2011). Northern Mexico is experiencing a budding human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic, particularly among injection drug users (IDUs); who are at an increased risk of blood-borne infections, hepatitis C virus (HCV), HIV, and Syphilis due to availability of drugs, increased rates of unprotected sex, and needle sharing (Frost et al., 2006). Patterson reported 75% of female sex workers (FSWs) in Ciudad (Cd.) Juárez, Mexico were injection drug users (IDUs) (2006). FSWs in these border cities who had recently injected drugs presented a significantly higher risk for sexual risk-behaviors compared to other FSWs, …show more content…

Then blood was drawn to test for viruses. All participants were provided counseling before and after their interviews and treatment referrals. Log-linear models were used to investigate the association between the status of the recruiter and those they referred. Syphilis population estimates were obtained using RDS-based estimators of personal network size to correct biased sampling (Frost et al., 2006).
The prevalence of HCV was 96.6% and 95.3% in Tijuana and Cd. Juárez respectively; HIV prevalence was 1.9% and 4.1% in Tijuana and Cd. Juárez respectively, and in Cd. Juárez HBV prevalence was 84.7%. The estimated syphilis prevalence ranged from 12.4-26.8% in Tijuana and 2.9-15.6% in Cd. Juárez. The variance in syphilis prevalence was due the dependency on the pattern of recruitment and how much network size was assumed to affect sample probability. Results showed syphilis prevalence increased in women and Tijuana in comparison to men and Cd. Juárez. The results show that network size and gender are both potential confounders. The qualifiers for network size are subjective thus relate to the recruitee and syphilis level. Because female prostitutes are more likely to be IUD users, gender also relates to IDU and syphilis level. In conclusion, there was a low HIV prevalence, high syphilis prevalence, and

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