Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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New York Times (12.13.05) - Tuesday, December 13, 2005
James C. McKinley Jr.
In the 1980s, city officials first addressed the problem by opening a clinic in La Coahuila and registering prostitutes, urging them to have regular STD tests and issuing pink booklets used to verify testing. But enforcement was lax at best, and while inspectors could take away a prostitute's booklet, cabaret and hotel owners were left alone.
City officials have replaced the old pink booklets with licenses that look like a credit card with a photo. A magnetic strip on the card's back allows inspectors with hand-held scanners to check a prostitute's medical status in seconds. "If a person is infected at the time when they read the credential, there will appear a red light that says she cannot work," said Dr. Manuel Mayor Noriega, who runs the city clinic for prostitutes.
Currently, about 5,000 prostitutes undergo STD testing each month. But another 8,000 women and men who have registered since the system began have stopped coming to the clinic, said Noriega. It is unclear how many left the business and how many simply decided to stop paying for the tests.
Mayor Noriega said AIDS incidence in women registered at his clinic is very low, just three cases detected so far this year, and all were women who had arrived from other cities and were seeking a credential to work. Incidence of gonorrhea and syphilis is similarly low, with less than five cases of each detected this year, he said.
But state health officials in Baja California say preliminary evidence shows a much higher HIV rate among prostitutes, especially those who are also intravenous drug users, many of whom are not registered with the city. A study of HIV incidence in prostitutes will be completed next year.
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