Movement Patterns of Persons With HIV Receiving Treatment in Public Clinics in the Southern Health Region, Puerto Rico

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Abstract
Health planners suspect there is a pattern of movement, dubbed the "air bridge," between Puerto Rico and the continental United States by persons living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) who are seeking health services. The authors tested this hypothesis in publicly supported HlVclinics in the Puerto Rican Southern Health Region (SHR). A survey was conducted of 187 patients who were at least 18 years of age, confirmed HIV positive, and not incarcerated. Only 7% of the respondents had been outside the SHR for 2 weeks or more in the past year. Intravenous drug users and men who have sex with men were 7 to 8 times more likely to have traveled than were heterosexual respondents. Fifty-seven percent of all movement was within Puerto Rico, and no one had traveled to the United States primarily to receive medical services. Thus the results of this study do not support the concept of an "air bridge. "

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