SAN DIEGO—A so-called “drug tourism” may be fueling a new HIV outbreak in Tijuana, unabated by the COVID-19 closure of the international border, the University of California–San Diego School of Medicine researchers announced on Feb. 11 at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infection.
Specifically, the researchers found that the HIV incidence rate among people who use drugs in Tijuana had risen to an unprecedented 11 per 100 person-years—a statistical time measure that roughly translates to 11% per year. The HIV incidence rate for people using drugs in San Diego who cross the border to purchase drugs was found to be lower, at 2.77 per 100 P-Y, but still high compared to the HIV incidence rate among drug users who do not cross the border—for whom the HIV incidence rate was zero.
