A new study finds a large percentage of men who have sex with Tijuana sex workers do not use condoms. As KPBS reporter Amy Isackson explains, the study by University of California San Diego researchers suggests these men's risky behavior can spread AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases in Tijuana and San Diego.
UCSD and Mexican researchers interviewed 400 men for the study who are clients of Tijuana sex workers.
Their average age was 36 years-old. Half were from Mexico and half from the U.S.
More than 40 percent of the men said they do not regularly use condoms with females sex workers. They say they have sex with more than 25 female sex workers a year.
UCSD's Tom Patterson is the study's lead author.
He says these men potentially put their wives, girlfriends and other sex partners, sex workers and sex workers' loved ones at substantial risk. "When they are having sex in Tijuana, the old adage about when you have sex with someone, you're having sex with all their partners is true."
Patterson says intervention is needed immediately to educate these men about the risks they're taking.
