Most workers were unaware or confused about their health status. Fourteen out of 100 didn’t know they had it; 11 said they didn’t have it; and 16 said they didn’t want to answer the question, even though they had agreed to testing.

Sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, are extremely prevalent among those in Mexico City’s male sex work industry.

According to a new study, a lack of protective measures and widespread risky sexual behaviors can be blamed for Mexico City’s male sex workers’ contraction of diseases.

Findings published in the Journal of the International AIDS Society shows that sex workers can make 34.5 percent more money if they forgo condoms, which could result in the likely spread of STIs. The new research involved interviewing and testing 267 male sex workers who visited the city’s Clínica Especializada Condesa. The report documented unembellished health dangers that male sex workers face when performing sex acts in hotels, streets and discotheques of Mexico City.

Of the workers who participated in the study, 1 percent had hepatitis C, 2 percent had gonorrhea, 3 percent had active hepatitis, 10 percent had chlamydia, 21 percent had syphilis and 38 percent had HIV.

Omar Galárraga, lead author and health economist, is one of many individuals looking to unearth an incentive that might reduce the spread of HIV and other diseases in the same-sex male sex work environment. Galárraga, who is the assistant professor of health services, policy and practice in the Brown University School of Public Health, stated, “It’s a very highly at-risk population.”

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