Other factors may increase risk for migrants and refugees. Communicable diseases, including STDs, spread most quickly in conditions of poverty, powerlessness, and social instability. The disruption of social ties and family life that occurs during moves, especially in situations of poverty and crisis, also increases risk of disease, as migrants find new sex partners. HIV high-risk groups and mobility. Although not considered temporary migrants, long-distance truck drivers are of particular concern to disease control programs because they often are at high risk and can spread STDs long distances.
Many sex workers move from place to place, whether voluntarily or involuntarily.
For example, women from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam work in brothels in Thailand. Sex workers from Thailand and the Philippines work in Japan. Sex workers may spread HIV from cities to rural areas when they return home. A few countries have tried to stop the spread of AIDS by preventing people suspected of being infected with HIV from entering the country. In 1992 the US would not admit HIV-positive participants to the World AIDS Conference in San Francisco.