PROJECT
Migration and Sexually Transmitted Infections (Including HIV and AIDS) in the Americas: Lessons Learned and Recommendations

The goal of this project (formally titled "Systematizing and Sharing Lessons Learned About Migration and Sexually Transmitted Infections Including HIV and AIDS in Central America, Mexico, and the United States: Building a Foundation for Action") was to conduct a comprehensive review of research and lessons learned in the field of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV and AIDS, and migration between Central America, Mexico, and the United States. The review involved analysis of more than 300 published and unpublished documents as well as interviews with 69 researchers, decisionmakers, health care workers, and representatives of nongovernmental and international organizations.

In February 2006, after the review was completed, the Population Council invited 50 experts to a working meeting at which they developed a list of priorities for research and action. Key findings of the meeting include consensus that changes in social networks and risk behaviors, social marginalization, and discrimination increase the vulnerability of migrants to HIV infection. Mobility, undocumented status, and centralized diagnosis and antiretroviral treatment present challenges to providing timely HIV diagnosis, as well as access to and continuity of high-quality treatment and care. Some innovative programs that respond to these challenges have been implemented but few have been evaluated.

Recommendations include promoting evidence about the effectiveness and relative cost benefits of different prevention, treatment, and care strategies. Applied research with a rigorous evaluation component is needed to generate this information. Strengthened multisectoral monitoring and evaluation is needed to promote the implementation of existing international, regional, and national commitments to guarantee migrants' human rights and health, and to promote HIV prevention and care.

One of the actions taken by the Population Council to respond to these needs was the creation of an interactive CD-ROM for health care providers and members of civil society who work with migrants or in migrant-sending communities. Some 6,500 of these CD-ROMs have been distributed in Mexico and the United States, as well as internationally. The CD-ROM is available free of charge from publications@popcouncil.org. It can be also be  downloaded from www.popcouncil.org/migracion/.

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Location

Central America: Regional review with a focus on Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala

Mexico: Countrywide review with a focus on Oaxaca, Puebla, Veracruz, and Zacatecas

USA: Countrywide review with a focus on California and New York

Duration

June 2005–August 2006

Population Council researcher

Ricardo Vernon

Non-Council collaborators

Tamil Kendall (consultant)

Ana Langer (EngenderHealth)

Graciella Marsal (Centro de Estudios y Promoción Social, Managua, Nicaragua)

Donors

The Ford Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation

Publications/Resources
Council researchers' names appear in boldface type. 

2006
Kendall, Tamil and Ana Langer. “VIH/SIDA y migración México-Estados Unidos: Evidencias para enfocar la prevención,” in Los mexicanos de aquí y de allá: problemas comunes, Memoria del Segundo Foro de Reflexión Binacional, Fundación Solidaridad Mexicano Americana, A.C. and Senado de la República. Fundación Solidaridad Mexicano Americano: Mexico, 2006: 139–153. (PDF en español)

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See Also

• Guatemala
• Honduras
• Mexico
• Nicaragua
• Reproductive Tract Infections and Sexually Transmitted Infections
• HIV and AIDS Prevention
• HIV and AIDS Treatment, Care, and Support
• "Southern Brazil—'Health on the Road': Designing HIV/AIDS programs for truck drivers" (2004) (full text)
• "Expanding workplace HIV prevention programs for a highly mobile population in Ho Chi Minh City" (2003) (full text)

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