Posted on 11/29/2007 3:46:46 PM PST by SwinneySwitch
Disease rate higher for those with U.S. clients, study says
Female prostitutes in Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez who catered to American “johns” had a 50 percent higher rate of syphilis or another sexually transmitted disease than those who didn't, according to a UCSD study.
The women paid by American customers were younger and more likely to speak English than their counterparts, and they were more apt to inject drugs and have unprotected sex, said Steffanie Strathdee, chief of the international health division at the University of California San Diego. She wrote the report, which appears in the current edition of the journal Sexually Transmitted Diseases.
“A lot of (customers) who go to Mexico to have sex may be lulled into a false sense of complacency,” Strathdee said. “They think that if the woman speaks English and looks OK and clean, she is safe. But these are highly vulnerable women. They are being bribed to have unprotected sex.”
The prostitutes with U.S. clients typically received $30 for unprotected sex versus $20 for sex with a condom, she found.
Online: To read the study about Mexican prostitutes' health risks, go to uniontrib.com/more/bordersex
The economic incentive may explain why prostitutes with U.S. clients had higher rates of gonorrhea, syphilis, HIV and chlamydia than women who did not engage in sex for pay with Americans.
Strathdee emphasized that the women should not take all the blame.
“Their clients also share some responsibility,” she said. “Some of these men are offering these women more money for sex without a condom, but no one should have to put a price on their health.”
Strathdee worked with health officials and researchers in Mexico, Boston and Davis to survey 924 prostitutes – 474 in Tijuana and 450 in Ciudad Juarez – between January 2004 and March 2005.
Sixty-nine percent of the prostitutes said they had at least one American client. Within that group, nearly 42 percent reported having a few American customers, and about 13 percent said most of their clients were American.
Prostitutes received about $30 an hour for their participation in the study, Strathdee said. The National Institute for Mental Health funded the research.
The goal is to find effective ways to persuade prostitutes in five U.S.-Mexico border cities – Tijuana; Mexicali; Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas; Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas; and Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas – to reduce their high-risk activities.
“We really need to intensify the intervention,” Strathdee said. “This is a shared border, and we really need to make sure this message gets across.”
Health experts had long assumed that STD infection rates in Mexican border towns were relatively low based on a few outdated surveys, Strathdee said.
AdvertisementHer project found a significant increase in the number of prostitutes infected with HIV – 6 percent in 2005, up from 2 percent 10 years ago. A further analysis of HIV prevalence among Mexican prostitutes who injected drugs found that 12 percent had tested positive for HIV. The researchers' other findings include:
Of the prostitutes who catered to Americans, 8 percent tested positive for gonorrhea, 14 percent for chlamydia, 7 percent for HIV and 16 percent for syphilis.
Of the prostitutes who didn't have sex with Americans, 2 percent tested positive for gonorrhea, 10 percent for chlamydia, 5 percent for HIV and 10 percent for syphilis.
Sixteen percent of Mexican prostitutes who serviced U.S. clients had injected drugs in the past month, compared with 5 percent for those without U.S. customers.
Eighteen percent of the prostitutes with U.S. clients always or often used drugs before or during sex, compared with 7 percent of the prostitutes without U.S. customers.
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Cheryl Clark: (619) 542-4573; cheryl.clark@uniontrib.com
So they were paid the "unprotected" study rate...
I had to read your post twice! lol
I want money to do a study on the risk of getting kicked in the head by a mule while having sex with a mexican hooker....sheeesh!studies...
*Anyone*,*anywhere* who engages in prostitution deserves everything that he/she gets.*Anyone*,*anywhere* who patronizes prostitutes deserves everything that he/she gets.Overly simplistic and trite.
...Because we might crush them with our weight?
Old Mexico ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
> An American would have to be nuts to go to Tijuana and have unprotected sex with a $30 whore
That’s why I do my traveling to Haiti.
(I figured I might need to add a “pun alert”). :-)
Sexual slaves? I didn't see any mention of slavery.I don't know if such a thing exists but I suppose it could.So I'll rephrase my comment....*Anyone* who voluntarily engages in prostitution..."
And as for my (revised) comment being trite....prostitution (particularly in the Third World) results in hundreds of thousands...if not millions...of deaths.
Trite? Not by my definition of the word.
I bought some arse in Palma, Spain (Mallorca) at a bona fide 'ho house (complete with crushed velvet upholstery) when I was a young lad in the Navy. For $40, all I got was a good friggin time. Glad to know, now, that I deserved it. ;)
May I assume that your experience occurred before the letters “AIDS” became something more than a random collection of letters.
Five dolla MPC, no VD, No MP, there were many, many, who left with smiles, and really liked what they got.
Sexual slaves? I didn't see any mention of slavery.I don't know if such a thing exists but I suppose it could.So I'll rephrase my comment....*Anyone* who voluntarily engages in prostitution..."
And as for my (revised) comment being trite....prostitution (particularly in the Third World) results in hundreds of thousands...if not millions...of deaths.
Trite? Not by my definition of the word.
trite: lacking in freshness or effectiveness because of constant use or excessive repetition; hackneyed; stale: the trite phrases in his letter.Your comments sound trite to me.
Nah. Was 1989 or so. Truth be told it was probably the most "sanitary" sex I ever had. A real professional outfit. I'm certain that my various adventures at Penn State were far more hazardous.
Just infecting those hookers the Mexican men won’t infect.
Doing the infecting Americans will no longer do...
occurred before the letters “AIDS”
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If that was the case, then it would’ve only cost him 20 bucks, not forty.
>>The prostitutes with U.S. clients typically received $30 for unprotected sex versus $20 for sex with a condom, she found.<<
I wonder how much it costs if you want double condoms... or triple.
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