Sexually transmitted disease rates reach 10 year high in El Paso

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Sexually transmitted disease rates in El Paso spiked to record highs in recent years, according to public health department data. The El Paso Department of Public Health reported a 10-year high of 7,681 new cases of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in 2017 – an 11 percent increase from 2016 and a 62 percent increase from 2007. “Nationwide it’s on the rise. STDs, the whole nine yards, the gonorrhea, the syphilis, the chlamydia, this is not unique for El Paso,” said Faduma Shegow, clinic services manager for the STD clinic of El Paso. “It’s happening nationwide.”

Banner promoting this year's walk. (Vanessa Juarez/Borderzine.com)

The border culture makes fighting HIV more difficult

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EL PASO — Jorge “Sasha” Garcia sat in a sterile, impersonal doctor’s office in the summer of 1995 and watched the clock tick away as he waited for the results of his HIV test. He had sought treatment two weeks earlier for an unrelated infection and decided to submit to the HIV test on the advice of his doctor. “This was back in the day before we had the 20-minute test, which allows you to find out right away. So, I waited two weeks and of course those two weeks were grueling,” Garcia said. Finally, the doctor strode into the office with Garcia’s results.