Tijuana's AIDS Epidemic Is a Binational Threat

On the Front Lines of Mexico's AIDS War

Angel Cabrera patrols Tijuana in search of drug users and commercial sex workers, providing them with condoms and clean needles in an effort to stop the spread of AIDS in one of the busiest land border crossings in the world.
(Video By Nancy Donaldson -- washingtonpost.com)

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"I just said, 'Why me, God?' " she recalled.

Last winter, Strathdee agreed to pay half the $8 daily cost of methadone treatment for Marilu's heroin addiction. In exchange, she would help recruit study participants.

She began treatment on Dec. 20, 2007. In an interview on June 2 she complained it did nothing for her meth cravings.

"It's just so hard," she said, crying, as the grandchild played at her feet.

She hasn't been seen since.

Reporting for this article was supported by the Project for International Health Journalism Fellowship, a part of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation's Media Fellowships Program.