6a0e4bf77c2f4f6618ed4036165eb3a517dc9da2-00001186-2

Tweets

Follow us @PLRI

Court-based research: collaborating with the justice system to enhance STI services for vulnerable women in the US http://t.co/3vEaFQVO
The fractal queerness of non-heteronormative migrant #sexworkers in the UK by Nick Mae http://t.co/X7oGFeDI
‘only 31% of the sample of indirect sex workers reported having been engaged in commercial sex in the last 12 months’
Old but good. Violence and Exposure to HIV among #sexworkers in Phnom Penh http://t.co/rkrRGiBa
Someone is Wrong on the Internet: #sex workers’ access to accurate information 

HIV prevention

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.

Article in AIDS Clinic Res S1:002.

Purpose: This study examined the social and contextual factors associated with continued high risk sexual behaviors among male-to-female transgender (MTFTG) adolescents living with HIV/AIDS. The study is part of a larger qualitative study of 59 racial/ethnic minority adolescents living with HIV/AIDS.

Methods: In-depth focused interviews were conducted with five MTFTG adolescents (16-24 years) living with HIV. Content analysis was conducted to identify themes related to continued sexual risk behaviors.

2010 will be a year to remember for the field of HIV prevention. After decades of interventions with limited results (with the exception of circumcision and the prevention of mother to child HIV transmission), two clinical studies are raising the hope that the HIV epidemic can be tamed.

This paper examines how beliefs about own and partner’s HIV status influence willingness to engage in risky sexual behaviour in the market for commercial sex in developing countries. Especially, we look at the e¤ect of one intervention that has the potential to alter beliefs, namely HIV testing, and how testing influences a commercial sex worker’s decision to sell unprotected sex. We analyse the hypothesis that HIV testing reduces transmission risks by applying the game theoretical concept of perfect Bayesian equilibrium in a model with double-sided asymmetric information.

Reducing harm associated with selling and purchasing sex is an important public health priority in China, yet there are few examples of sustainable, successful programs to promote sexual health among female sex workers. The limited civil society and scope of nongovernmental organizations circumscribe the local capacity of female sex workers to collectively organize, advocate for their rights, and implement STI/HIV prevention programs.

As sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevalence rises, individuals substitute away from risky sex; this behavioral response renders STI epidemics self-limiting. In the commercial sex sector, however, prostitutes draw a premium for engaging in unprotected sex, potentially mitigating their propensity to use condoms. While several studies have estimated this premium, none have been able to identify its source as a compensating differential for disease risk.

“What drives continued expansion of the pandemic is not the absence of effective preventative technologies but discrimination, exploitation and repression of certain social groups,” Dr Peter Piot.

This article looks at the potential impact of partially effective, non contraceptive HIV prevention methods on sex workers in the light of recent news that anti-retroviral treatment (ART) by people with HIV substantially protects their HIV-uninfected sexual partners from acquiring HIV infection, with a 96 percent reduction in risk of HIV transmission.

An article in Sex Transm Inf 1998; 74: 54-58.  

Objective: To evaluate a targeted HIV prevention programme among female commercial sex workers (CSWs) in the south of Thailand.

Article in Sex. Transm. Infect. 2011;87:263.

Objective To ascertain the cost effectiveness of targeted interventions for female sex workers (FSW) under the National AIDS Control Programme in India.

Article in the Lancet,  Volume 377, Issue 9779, Page 1719, 21 May 2011.

This article gives more detail on the recent trial of HIV treatment as a form of HIV prevention.