HIV

Fiji Cracks Down on Sex work

THE military regime in Fiji is taking on a new target: sex workers

A report published today by the University of NSW says sex workers, especially in Lautoka, the centre of Fiji’s sugar industry, north of Nadi, have been rounded up by the military and subjected to sleep deprivation, humiliation and forced physical labour.

Karen McMillan, a researcher with the International HIV Research Group at UNSW, said the sex workers were held in outdoor pens at an army base, woken every three hours and made to do duck-walks and squat in the mud.

Antiretroviral Therapy among HIV-1 Infected Female Sex Workers in Benin: A Comparative Study with Patients from the General Population

The aim of this study conducted in Benin was to compare HIV-1 infected female sex workers (FSW) and patients from the general population (GP) to see whether there was a difference in adherence level, mortality rate and immuno-virologic response to antiretroviral therapy (ART).

The descriptive epidemiology of male sex workers in Pakistan: a biological and behavioural examination

In this study in Pakistan 3350 male and transgender sex workers were surveyed, of which 2694 were included in the study. The average age of respondents was 24.1 years (SD 6.3), and the average duration of sex work was 7.5 years (SD 5.9). Respondents averaged 30.9 (SD 2.7) paid receptive anal sex acts in the month prior to their interview, while 21.5% reported using a condom during their last occurrence of paid anal sex. Of those surveyed, HIV prevalence was 5.4 per 1000; notably, no HIV-positive respondents reported any injection drug use.

Press Release: Sex workers, governments and UN join hands to boost AIDS response in Asia-Pacific region

PATTAYA, Thailand, 15 October 2010 - At the first-ever Asia-Pacific consultation on HIV and sex work, sex workers, government officials and United Nations participants emphasized the need for urgent action to increase focus and positioning of sex work within HIV responses in the region.

Close to 150 delegates from eight countries (China, Cambodia, Fiji, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea and Thailand) met in Pattaya, Thailand, to form partnerships and review policies and laws that keep sex workers from accessing HIV services and sexual and reproductive health services.

“Sex work interventions must be central to scaling up the HIV response, and listening to sex workers is crucial,” said Jan Beagle, Deputy-Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) who spoke at the consultation. “Sex workers experience firsthand the effects of laws and harmful enforcement practices that violate their human rights and hamper progress on HIV,” he said.

African Sex Worker Alliance Statement

Delegates from the African Sex Worker Alliance (ASWA) and a church leader from Nigeria gathered in Pretoria from the 28th September to 10th October for a second historic meeting as a follow up to the first ever African sex worker lead conference in February 2009.

Helen Clark: Remarks at Inaugural meeting of HIV Global Commission

On the Occasion of the Inaugural Meeting of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law

Wednesday, 6 October 2010

First of all, a very warm welcome from me to all Commissioners who have been able to attend this inaugural meeting of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law.

I would like to express my gratitude to President Fernando Henrique Cardoso for hosting the meeting at his institute in Brazil – a nation which has long been a leader in the global AIDS response.

UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights Submission to the Global Commission on HIV & the Law

The Human Rights  Reference Group challenges the Commission o go beyond existing statements [about decriminalisation] and to contribute to greater knowledge and action on how to break the impasse in human rights-based law reform, enforcement and access to justice related to HIV.  It offers six recommendations of which this is the first.

Burden of HIV among female sex workers in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis

This is an important study of the epidemiological literature on female sex workers. It shows us that for the first 30 years HIV affected and killed huge numbers of women who sell sex. Although the article does not make for happy reading we can take great comfort in knowing that the information here is  about things that happenned before there was widespread access to  ARV treatment.

Developing a typology of female sex work, South India, with special reference to Karnataka

The thesis is premised on the fact that India's National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) employs the typology of female sex work in outreach and other components of the HIV programme in order to identify high-risk female sex workers (FSWs). However, the current typology – distinguishing between FSWs based on their main place of solicitation – may not adequately reflect the variation in HIV risk.

Preventing HIV in sex work in Sex Work Settings in Sub Saharan Africa

Sex work is an important feature of the transmission dynamics of HIV within early, advanced and regressing epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa.

HIV prevalence among sex workers and their clients is commonly 20 fold higher than the general population.

Together, these factors may contribute to a differential in HIV transmission potential of more than 1000 times compared with lower-risk populations. Yet, in much of Africa, there is little evidence that transmission of HIV and other STIs in sex work settings has been controlled.

Syndicate content