SAN DIEGO, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Researchers said Tuesday that HIV/AIDS rates in Tijuana, Mexico, are rising at an "alarming rate."
A study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego shows that the virus has infected the border town at a concentration possibly as high as 1 in 125 people aged 15 to 49, a rate much higher than previously estimated.
In fact, the rate of HIV/AIDS in Tijuana -- a city of about 1.2 million -- may be three times Mexico's national average.
"Intervention and prevention on both sides of the border are urgently needed, because of the high mobility between Tijuana and San Diego County," the San Diego researchers said, noting that high-risk groups like male homosexuals, injection drugs users, sex workers and pregnant women are of particular concern.
The United Nations AIDS Program defines an HIV epidemic as a case where the viral concentrations go from a low level to a concentration affecting more than 1 percent of the population, the researchers noted.
The study will be published in the March 1 issue of the Journal of Urban Health, a bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine.
