Increasing cases of HIV/AIDS in the northern region of the Colombia-Venezuela border: The impact of high scale migration in recent years

Regarding this last, it has been linked to an increase in the vulnerability to HIV infection of mobile people and their families, moreover, there have been identified significant differences in the population regarding its HIV status, being HIV positive individuals more likely to leave their homeplaces, move from rural areas to cities and move permanently and cyclically when compared to HIV negative individuals, highlighting the impact on human migration patterns [2]. In this context, the phenomenon of high scale migration across the Colombia-Venezuela border, mainly from Venezuelans to Colombia, due to the economic and social crisis of the Bolivarian country has started to generate questions about the potential impact on public health that could produce even in the short term [3]. The increasing prevalence of HIV/AIDS recently evidenced in this border region must be analyzed with caution, because of the fact that it is a region that have suffered similar situations before, as in 2003, when the number of cases exceeded the forecasts for that year in a similar way, but with a much lower migration across the Colombia-Venezuela border. [...]another factor to take into account is the movement of Colombians to Venezuela, also evidenced in the migration reports, exceeding rarely even the number of Venezuelans entering Colombia, a phenomenon that increases the chance of HIV circulation among the neighboring regions.