Bi-National Program Training Tijuana Cops to Avoid HIV Infections from Needle-Sticks Kenny Goldberg - KPBS.org
go to original May 20, 2015

A discarded syringe lays along the side of busy street in Tijuana. (Katie Schoolov)

In the Tijuana neighborhood known as La Zona Norte, you don’t have to look very hard to find people using drugs.

On the sidewalk of a busy street, a man uses a needle to inject himself in the neck. Around the corner, in the middle of a pile of garbage, another man shoots up. Used syringes are everywhere.

When Tijuana police officers find syringes on someone, they typically break them apart, or throw them in the trash. That’s what they were taught to do. But these practices are risky. In a recent survey, 15 percent of Tijuana officers said they’ve suffered a needle-stick injury.

“Normally we don’t get courses in how to avoid becoming infected by syringes and other things," officer Jonathan Martinez said. Until now.

UC San Diego is working with the Tijuana police to coordinate special training for officers to make it safer for them to patrol the streets in the border city.

Read the rest at KPBS.org

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