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
There is always the donkey.
I may have to consult Urban Dictionary or something to figure out what you said...haha.
Again,this was before AIDS,correct? Things are different today,I'd say.Have you ever seen anyone in the advanced stages of AIDS? I have,*many* times(during my 20 year tenure at a major hospital with a *huge* homosexual patient population).
Trust me....it ain't pretty.It's so ugly,in fact,that if I ever faced a choice of time with a hooker and time spent "otherwise"....I'd choose "otherwise".Every single time.
However,YMMV.
Why is taxpayer funding at the University of California San Diego being used to study hookers in Mexico? Are Mexican universities spending money to study hookers in the U.S.? The kind of judgment that results in “studies” like this being funded needs to be purged from our universities. And now that we have this information, how is it going to be used? I can’t imagine the hookers will stop hooking, or the johns will stop doing what they do. Steffanie Strathdee is running a racket.
I think an English-Vietnamese dictionary is what you need.
ha! so you're sayin' they had a gun to their heads?
ha! so you're sayin' they had a gun to their heads?What getting beaten and "turned out" by your pimp isn't enough for you? :roll:
I was thinking that they were giving us jobs for a change..
night night, sleepy head.
50% of Americans who had sex with a Tijuana donkey contracted hoof-and-mouth disease; the other 50% got the Great Epizootic.
The group with American clients was younger and no doubt better looking than the older group.
That probably translated into a whole lot more encounters as well, increasing the risk of infection.
You probably know more about prostitution in Tiajuana than I do, but in most Mexican cities, prostitution is licensed.
They not street walkers with pimps, but are confined to a red-light district and work in clubs or to rented cribs. They work for the ‘house’ which is usually a wealthy owner who receives a percentage of their fees for their use of the room and for their board.
But perhaps your experience with Tiajuana prostitution is different.
I’m guessing the ones that don’t have sex with ‘mericans are “guilty.” And probably not doing much bidness.
I had a response to this thread, but when I read this, I choked on my coffee and forgot what I was going to type.
Not whores. Multicultural Sex Workers. Learn it. Live it.
You probably know more about prostitution in Tiajuana than I do, but in most Mexican cities, prostitution is licensed.Nope. All I know is the scene in Japan from living in Tokyo. Kabukicho had huge problems with white slavery. Pimps would offer jobs to/kidnap eastern european girls, beat/rape them into submission, steal their passport and turn them loose.
They not street walkers with pimps, but are confined to a red-light district and work in clubs or to rented cribs. They work for the ‘house’ which is usually a wealthy owner who receives a percentage of their fees for their use of the room and for their board.
But perhaps your experience with Tiajuana prostitution is different.
Well you definitely need the stainless steel condom with the titanium hose clamp.
These guys are either naive or willfully obtuse. Probably the vast majority of slavery that is going on in the world today is sexual slavery ranging from kidnap to parents selling their children. And for those who aren’t literal slaves, yeah I guess they’ve got a choice. Prostitution and food or no prostitution and no food.
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