Critical Population Spotlight: HIV and the Garífuna of Honduras--Comment on Gandhi et al. "Migration, Multiple Sexual Partnerships, and Sexual Concurrency in the Garífuna Population of Honduras"

The Honduran diaspora and infectious diseases: An urgent need for action

Recently, there has been a significant increase in irregular migration from Central America's northern triangle (Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador). Hondurans who migrate to North America face numerous risks to their lives and health. Infectious diseases are one of the most serious threats to migrants both during the migration process and once they arrive in the host country. The major infectious diseases affecting both migrants and the health services in non-endemic countries that care for these migrants are discussed.

Migration, Social Networks, and HIV Sexual Risk Behaviors Among Involuntary Bachelors in Rural China

In rural China there is an abnormally high male-biased sex ratio. The result is a large number of involuntary bachelors. This study examines how migration and social networks relate to bachelors' sexual risk behaviors. Data are from a cross-sectional questionnaire survey in which 740 male respondents who had rural household registration, had never married, and were aged 28 or older were interviewed in 2017. Logistic regression reveals that both migration and social networks place the bachelors at an especially high risk of HIV transmission by increasing the chance that they engage in commercial sex, whereas only social networks are significantly associated with sexual partnership concurrency. Additionally, social networks mediate the association between migration and commercial sex. This suggests that social networks play an important role in bachelors' risk of HIV transmission and that further intervention should address their social networks.

Identification of major routes of HIV transmission throughout Mesoamerica

BACKGROUND

Migration and travel are major drivers of the spread of infectious diseases. Geographic proximity and a common language facilitate travel and migration in Mesoamerica, which in turn could affect the spread of HIV in the region.

METHODS

6092 HIV-1 subtype B partial pol sequences sampled from unique antiretroviral treatment-naïve individuals from Mexico (40.7%), Guatemala (24.4%), Honduras (19%), Panama (8.2%), Nicaragua (5.5%), Belize (1.4%), and El Salvador (0.7%) between 2011 and 2016 were included. Phylogenetic and genetic network analyses were performed to infer putative relationships between HIV sequences. The demographic and geographic associations with clustering were analyzed and viral migration patterns were inferred using the Slatkin-Maddison approach on 100 iterations of random subsets of equal number of sequences per location.

RESULTS

A total of 1685/6088 (27.7%) of sequences linked with at least one other sequence, forming 603 putative transmission clusters (range: 2-89 individuals). Clustering individuals were significantly more likely to be younger (median age 29 vs 33years, p<0.01) and men-who-have-sex-with-men (40.4% vs 30.3%, p<0.01). Of the 603 clusters, 30 (5%) included sequences from multiple countries with commonly observed linkages between Mexican and Honduran sequences. Eight of the 603 clusters included >10 individuals, including two comprised exclusively of Guatemalans (52 and 89 individuals). Phylogenetic and migration analyses suggested that the Central and Southern regions of Mexico along with Belize were major sources of HIV throughout the region (p<0.01) with genetic flow southward from Mexico to the other nations of Mesoamerica. We also found evidence of significant viral migration within Mexico.

CONCLUSION

International clusters were infrequent, suggesting moderate migration between HIV epidemics of the different Mesoamerican countries. Nevertheless, we observed important sources of transnational HIV spread in the region, including Southern and Central Mexico and Belize.