Going North: Mexican migrants and their vulnerability to HIV.

BACKGROUND: Mexican migrants are at higher risk for HIV than Mexicans who do not migrate to the United States. Migration to the United States was the driving factor of the early Mexican HIV epidemic, and it is likely that it continues to strongly influence incidence. An overview of migration of Mexicans to the United States identifies many pervasive environmental and structural factors as well as risk behaviors that render migrants vulnerable to HIV infection. However, published studies sampling Mexicans while in the United States suggest a relatively low prevalence of HIV among the general migrant population. To better understand this apparent paradox, we sought to identify any demographic variables among Mexicans while in Mexico that may indicate that migrants have or acquire resources that have a protective effect from their vulnerability due to migration. METHODS: A California-Mexico binational collaboration project, with a respondent-driven sample with population-based quotas, was conducted in five Mexican states from December 2004 to January 2005, in areas with a high index of migration to the United States. We compared demographic and behavior variables of Mexicans with a history of migration to the United States in the past 12 months to nonmigrant Mexicans living in the same community. RESULTS: A total of 1539 migrants and 1236 nonmigrants were recruited from five Mexican states. Migrants (men and women) reported more HIV risk behavior than nonmigrants in the past 12 months. Migrants reported more sexual partners and noninjected drug use. Migrants reported higher condom use during vaginal sex and were more likely to have taken an HIV test. CONCLUSION: Though migrants reported higher HIV-related risk behaviors, they also reported higher condom use. Migrants were more likely to have accessed an HIV test indicating an opportunity for a prevention intervention. More binational collaborations are needed to research the different levels of vulnerability among Mexican migrants and actual acquisition of HIV infection. In addition, more research is needed to identify protective factors for HIV prevention interventions among Mexican migrant communities in Mexico and in the United States.

[The rural population. Dispersion and needs]. / La poblacion rural. Dispersion y carencias.

PIP: Significant changes have occurred in recent decades in the dynamics and distribution of the Mexican population. The average annual growth rate declined from 3.4% in the 1960s to 2.3% in the 1980s, and the population has become predominantly urban. Intense urbanization began in the 1940s, but in 1960 some 67% of the population still lived in rural areas. Although urbanization and the pace of urban development decelerated beginning in 1960, the urban growth rate continued to exceed that of the total population. The proportion of the rural population living in places with fewer than 2500 inhabitants has remained nearly constant. In 1960, 74% of the rural population lived in 88,000 places with under 2500 inhabitants. In 1990, 67% of the rural population lived in 154,000 localities of fewer than 2500 people. Between 1960 and 1990, 98% of places considered rural continued to have fewer than 2500 inhabitants. Such places are characterized by severe deficiencies in employment, infrastructure, housing, educational services, and health. The proportion of the total Mexican population living in places of fewer than 2500 people was 49% in 1960, 41% in 1970, 34% in 1980, and 27% in 1990. In 1990, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Hidalgo, and Zacatecas had the highest proportions of their total populations in places of under 2500, with proportions ranging from 54% to 60%. Between 1960 and 1990, the rural population increased by 11 million and the urban by 35 million. The proportion of rural dwellers in localities with 2500 to 14,999 inhabitants increased more rapidly than did that in localities of under 2500.^ieng

Tratamiento antigenico a pacientes con sindrome de Down. / Antigenic treatment of patients with Down's syndrome

El aislamiento de substancias de propriedades antigenicas especificas de la orina de ninos con sindrome de Down, sugirio la conveniencia de aplicarlo, con fines terapeuticos, administrando, por via subcutanea, dosis adecuadas. Los resultados han sido sorprendentes, especialmente en pacientes menores de dos anos; discretos en los de dos o cinco y menos aparentes en mayores de 8 anos. Se considera que el tratamiento antigenico puede ser util adicion a los recursos empleados en la rehabilitacion de estos pacientes