Study: HIV cases along border spiked during COVID-19 pandemic

SAN DIEGO ( Border Report ) — Researchers at UC San Diego and UC Irvine found that when border restrictions were in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, HIV transmissions in Tijuana and San Diego went up.

The study concluded that people who were crossing the border were moving COVID-19 and HIV back and forth between the two countries.

“This shows that efforts to build a higher wall or policies to stop immigration will not mitigate HIV spread,” said Dr. Tetyana Vasylyeva, assistant professor of population health and disease prevention at UC Irvine.

According to the study , researchers applied “a molecular clock” to look at cases as a way to determine where and when HIV was spread.

They found all the new “clusters had sequences from participants on both sides of the border, indicating that cross-border transmission was happening right when the border was closed.”

Despite the border closure, one cluster that reportedly grew started with “two people from San Diego that used drugs in Tijuana.”

They found that during the 18-month period of their study, nine people contracted HIV, mostly during the pandemic.

“Nine sounds like a small number, but it’s actually quite a lot of people because in the U.S., HIV incidence is relatively low,” said Dr. Britt Skaathun, adjunct assistant professor at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “We were surprised to see this change in HIV status in such a short amount of time and wanted to look more closely at these clusters.”

The investigation centered around 618 participants from October 2020 to October 2021, focusing on three different groups: people who live in San Diego who cross the border to use drugs in Tijuana; people who live in San Diego and use drugs in San Diego; and people who live in Tijuana and use drugs in Tijuana.

They looked at how the viruses were related genetically, a field of study called phylogenetics.

After constructing viral-phylogenetic trees, the scientists identified transmission clusters.

“If two or three people have viruses that are very similar to each other, we can assume that the transmission event happened more recently because there is not enough evolution between these different viruses from these different people,” Vasylyeva explained.

According to Skaathun, the current study shows that closing the border during the pandemic functioned as “a structural risk factor.”

“The Frontera (border) is one integrated community that is not defined by place of residence. Efforts to end the HIV epidemic in the U.S. also need to be integrated by extending to Tijuana.”

Dr. Gudelia Rangel, one of the co-authors of the study, said the findings “confirm that HIV has no passport.”

She believes that establishing programs to eliminate HIV transmission at the border, such as harm reduction and substance use treatment services, “is a more effective way of preventing viral spread than attempting to close a porous border.”

This study was published a few days ago just as a researcher in Mexico declared her country is going through “a health emergency” due to an increased number of HIV cases, especially among young people.

“This is worrisome because young people are more active sexually than most adults,” said Rocío Paniagua, professor at Mexico’s Autonomous National University. “Young people are minimizing the importance of preventive measures.”

Paniagua reported that Mexico has almost 18,000 active HIV cases, the largest number ever recorded in Mexico.

She is calling on the Mexican government to invest more resources in prevention campaigns and medical treatment for those with HIV.

“I consider this a health emergency in Mexico, we’re having a spike in HIV cases,” Paniagua said

Other researchers are sounding the same alarm in Mexico.

“The lack of awareness campaigns is a big factor, no one is talking about the dangers of carrying the virus and the impacts it could have,” said Ricardo Baruch, a medical investigator in Mexico. “There is not enough money in the federal budget to invest in this area, and there aren’t enough medications available to attack the virus.”

Baruch blamed Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador for reducing access to HIV testing while he’s been in office.

“During his administration, we’ve seen the number of available test kits decrease, especially when it comes to testing pregnant women, which should be mandatory, but it’s not,” he said. “This has contributed to the spike in HIV cases among minors and other young people.”

Paniagua added that just like there is an anti-vaccination movement, many don’t believe HIV is real and a threat.

“There are many who question illnesses and say they are invented by doctors or laboratories who just want to make more money, and that everything is a state of mind and certain illnesses don’t really exist,” she said.

Emmanuel Reyes, president of Mexico’s Health Commission, disagrees there’s a lack of government resources being spent in the fight against HIV.

“This year, we’ve invested almost 552 million pesos ($33 million) in HIV prevention efforts, an increase of almost 13 percent from previous years,” he said.

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