SENTIDO > SCIENCE > HEALTH

THOUSANDS OF CENTRAL AMERICAN MIGRANTS RISK LIFE AND LIMB ON 'DEATH TRAIN' In what are often desperate attempts to reach the northern Mexico border, where they can cross into the US and escape endemic poverty, thousands of central American workers risk life and limb to reach better life. BUSH, SENATE LEADERS REACH AGREEMENT ON LANGUAGE FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM BILL A bipartisan group of senators have reportedly reached an agreement with the White House on language that would allow passage and signing for sweeping immigration reform legislation. The bill would give legal status to an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants. BUSH PRESENTA CINCO PUNTOS A FAVOR DE LA REFORMA MIGRATORIA Anoche, George W. Bush presentó desde su despacho en la Casa Blanca, un plan de cinco puntos claves para una "reforma comprensiva" de la política migratoria de Estados Unidos.

HIV CRISIS HITS MIGRANTS RETURNING TO RURAL MEXICO FROM US
MIGRANT WORKERS ARE RETURNING TO MEXICO CARRYING INFECTION, TREATMENT OFTEN IMPEDED BY MARGINAL STATUS
2 August 2007

A new study has shown that the most serious risk rural Mexican women face of contracting HIV is by sexual intercourse with their own husbands, in cases where the husband is a migrant worker traveling to and from the US. The result of the irregular migration policy regarding the US-Mexico border is that men who migrate without papers to work in factories or on farms often spend large amounts of time alone, with no contact with their wives or families.

This leads to encounters with high-risk sexual partners, and the possibility of unknowingly carrying HIV back to rural Mexico, where facilities for discovering or addressing the illness are scarce. The situation mirrors some of the most problematic circumstances in which the virus has spread most catastrophically in other parts of the world. In sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia, women have become highly susceptible to infection via their husbands.

The International Herald Tribune reports "As immigration reform founders in the United States, the expanding AIDS crisis among the migrants goes virtually unaddressed on both sides of the border. Particularly in Mexico, AIDS is still shrouded by stigma and denial. In the United States, it is often assumed that immigrants bring diseases into the country, not take them away."

The burgeoning crisis is one more reason why the United States should treat the issue of regularizing immigration with more urgency. It is often the case that communities where people are unable to be a visible part of the economic system create the "opportunity" for viruses like HIV to spread, through contact between marginalized men and prostitutes, who may be living outside the healthcare system altogether.

As Jennifer Hirsch, a professor of public health at Columbia University, said in an article in the June edition of the American Journal of Public Health, many migrant workers are "networking sexually among populations with higher HIV prevalence rates, having limited access to preventive or curative health services, and frequently dealing with the social isolation of the migrant experience by seeking comfort in sexual intimacy".

Studies have shown that as early as 1983, the first cases of AIDS detected in Mexico emerged among migrants. Throughout the 1980s, the pattern would vary, with migrants comprising as much as 79% of those infected. This means the influence of migrant working culture on public health in Mexico is closely linked to border crossing husbands, and is not a new or short-term phenomenon.

With stigma attached to the disease and the unwillingness of some to acknowledge that their husbands may have been with other women while across the border, preventive treatments have a cultural and psychological component. The Mexican government is beginning to provide anti-retroviral drugs to those in need of treatment, in an effort to prevent the spread of the disease. [s]

• IHT: "Back from the U.S., and spreading HIV in Mexico"

BACKGROUND:
INDIA TO PUSH FOR POLIO ERADICATION
AUTHORITIES IN INDIA WORRIED AFTER NEW CASES IN 2006 JUMP TO 297 FROM 66 IN ALL OF 2005
13 October 2006

In late September, India announced it was planning an aggressive campaign to halt the spread of polio, a paralyzing disease nearly eradicated worldwide a decade ago. The plans came after official reports showed 5 times as many new cases in the first 9 months of 2006 as in all of 2005, with about 90% of the 297 new cases concentrated in Uttar Pradesh state alone. [Full Story]

AIDS KILLED MORE THAN 3 MILLION IN 2005
3 December 2005

The human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) and its deadly end-stage syndrome, AIDS, killed at least 3 million people in 2005. HIV also infected 5 million new people around the world, the largest single increase on record, though similar numbers were reported for 2003. The pandemic is still extremely deadly and is still spreading. [Full Story]

MALARIA PANDEMIC KILLS 2 MILLION PER YEAR
24 June 2004

Anti-malaria activist and missionary groups report malaria is world's unseen pandemic, killing millions but largely unnoticed in the developed world. In April 2003, the United States' Department of Health and Human Services reported that malaria "affects an estimated 500 million people and results in up to 2 million deaths each year", with 90 percent of those deaths concentrated in Africa. The same report estimates an average of 3,000 children are killed every day in Africa by malaria parasites. [Full Story]

NIGERIA STRUGGLES WITH RESURGENCE OF POLIO
13 November 2003

Nigeria is facing a new polio eradication campaign. Almost half the world's polio cases are in Nigeria. Neighboring countries are beginning campaigns to keep the disease from spreading. The World Health Organization cautions that failure will permit the disease to spread to Nigeria's neighbors, undermining decades' worth of public health efforts. [Full Story]