scholarly journals Mobility study of young women who exchange sex for money or commodities using Google Maps and qualitative methods in Kampala, Uganda

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. e043078
Author(s):  
Rachel King ◽  
Eva Muhanguzi ◽  
Miriam Nakitto ◽  
Miriam Mirembe ◽  
Francis Xavier Kasujja ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Hiv Risk ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
High Mobility ◽  
Mobility Patterns ◽  
Google Maps ◽  
Hiv Negative

ObjectivesWe aimed to assess mobility patterns and reasons for high mobility among young women engaged in sex work within a randomised controlled trial to gauge how mobility may hinder access to health services and enhance HIV risk in a highly vulnerable population.SettingParticipants were recruited from a clinic in Kampala, Uganda set up for women at high risk of HIV infection.ParticipantsAdolescent girls and young women engaged in sex for money and/or commodities are at particular risk in countries with high HIV prevalence and high fertility rates. High mobility increases exposure to HIV risk. Women participants were eligible for the parent study if aged 15–24 years, HIV negative and engaged in sex work. For this substudy, 34 qualitative interviews were held with 14 sex workers (6 HIV positive, 8 HIV negative), 6 health worker/policy makers, 3 peer educators, 5 ‘queen mothers’ and 6 male partnersMeasuresParticipants used Google Maps to identify work venues at 12-month and 18-month study visits. We also conducted 34 interviews on mobility with: high-risk women, male partners, health workers and sex-worker managers. Topics included: distance, frequency and reasons for mobility. We used Python software to analyse mapping data.ResultsInterviews found in depth narratives describing lack of education and employment opportunities, violence, lack of agency, social, sexual and familial support networks and poverty as a complex web of reasons for high mobility among young sex workers.ConclusionsYoung women at high risk are highly mobile. Reasons for mobility impact access and retention to health services and research activities. Strategies to improve retention in care should be cognisant and tailored to suit mobility patterns.Trial registration numberNCT03203200.

scholarly journals Female Sex Work Dynamics: Empowerment, Mobilization, Mobility

2021 ◽  
pp. 43-60
Author(s):  
Saroj Pachauri ◽  
Ash Pachauri ◽  
Komal Mittal
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Reproductive Health Services ◽  
Services Research ◽  
Multiple Partners ◽  
Nations Programme ◽  
United Nations Programme ◽  
Sexual Services

AbstractUNAIDS defines sex work as selling sexual services (Ditmore in Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. UNAIDS, 2008, [1]). Sex workers involved in sexual relations with multiple partners are a key group of women who need access to comprehensive sexual health services, including HIV prevention, treatment, and care (Lafort et al. in Reproductive health services for populations at high risk of HIV: performance of a night clinic in Tete province, Mozambique. BMC Health Services Research, 2010, [2]). There are a broad range of sex workers in various locations including those who are street-based and brothel-based, those who work as escorts, and those who work from their own homes.

scholarly journals Prevalence, incidence, and distribution of human papillomavirus types in female sex workers in Kenya

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-118
Author(s):  
Kristen Sweet ◽  
Claire Bosire ◽  
Busola Sanusi ◽  
Carly J Sherrod ◽  
Jessie Kwatampora ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Papillomavirus ◽  
High Risk ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Female Sex Workers ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Hiv Positive ◽  
Female Sex ◽  
Hpv Prevalence ◽  
Hiv Negative

Female sex workers (FSWs) have a notably high risk of acquiring human papillomavirus (HPV) infections. Relatively few studies address the type-specific prevalence and incidence of HPV among FSWs in sub-Saharan Africa. FSWs (n = 348) attending the Korogocho clinic in Nairobi, Kenya participated from August 2009 to March 2011. HPV DNA was detected using the SPF10-LiPA25 PCR assay. Baseline prevalence of HPV infection and cervical dysplasia were calculated, stratified by HIV-serostatus. Incidence rate (IR) of infection was calculated as number of new infections from baseline over person-months among 160 HPV-negative participants with complete 12-month follow-up. Baseline HPV prevalence was 23.6% for any HPV and 20.4% for high-risk HPV (hrHPV) types. Most prevalent types were HPV52 (10.1%), HPV35 (2.3%), and HPV51 (2.3%). A quarter (24%) of participants were HIV-positive. HPV prevalence was higher in HIV-positive (32.1%) than HIV-negative (20.8%) participants. hrHPV prevalence was higher in HIV-positive (27.4%) than HIV-negative (18.2%) women. During follow-up, HPV IR was 31.4 (95% CI: 23.8–41.5) for any HPV and 24.2 (95% CI: 17.9–32.8) for hrHPV types. HPV52 had the highest IR (6.0; 95% CI: 6.5–10.3). Overall HPV and hrHPV prevalence were lower than expected, but both prevalence and incidence were higher in HIV-positive than in HIV-negative women.

Private sex workers’ engagement with sexual health services: an online survey

Sexual Health ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 93
Author(s):  
C. Thng ◽  
E. Blackledge ◽  
R. McIver ◽  
L. Watchirs Smith ◽  
A. McNulty
Keyword(s):  
Health Services ◽  
Sexual Health ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Throat Swab ◽  
Cervical Screening ◽  
Health Needs ◽  
Health Clinic ◽  
Gp Services

This study examined where private sex workers (PSW) present for sexual health services, disclosure, services received, and their satisfaction with care. An online anonymous survey was conducted via SurveyMonkey (surveymonkey.com). Among the 53 participants, 42% attended a sexual health clinic, 24% attended a general practitioner (GP) and 34% attended both. Participants attending GPs were less likely to be offered a throat swab and opportunities for cervical screening, contraception and vaccination were often missed in both service models. Participants attending GPs were less likely to disclose sex work and were less satisfied. Better awareness of the sexual health needs of PSWs is important in GP services.

scholarly journals Identifying Risk Factors and Spatial Clustering of HIV Infection Among Female Sex Workers in India

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-53
Author(s):  
Elangovan Arumugam ◽  
Vasna Joshua ◽  
Santhakumar Aridoss ◽  
Ganesh Balasubramanian ◽  
Nagaraj Jaganathasamy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Hiv Infection ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Female Sex Workers ◽  
Component Analysis ◽  
Index Score ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Female Sex ◽  
Selling Sex

Background: The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic in India is generally considered to be more concentrated, with the focus on high-risk groups including female sex workers (FSWs). The Integrated Biological and Behavioral Surveillance (IBBS), the first nationwide surveillance conducted during 2014-2015, collected many key indicators, including indicators related to HIV/STI transmission. The purpose of this study was to develop an index score for each domain surveyed and to identify focus areas for interventions among FSWs. Methods: The study population consisted of 27,007 FSWs. Forty high-risk related covariates of HIV/STI transmission, demographic characteristics, sexual history, condom practices, knowledge of HIV/STI and biological variables were considered. The original data set was examined using the correlation matrix and was reduced to 15 highly-correlated factors using principal component analysis. The factors were further improved using varimax rotation and the percentage of variation was used as weights to obtain the initial score for each domain, which were then standardized for comparison. Bartlett’s test of sphericity was examined before the factor extraction. Results: Six factors were extracted, which together explained about 73% of the total variation. The factors were: (1) more number of clients; (2) younger FSW and started selling sex at younger age; (3) experiencing condom breakage; (4) having occasional clients and poor HIV/AIDS knowledge; (5) illiteracy; and (6) a longer period of sex work. Six domains with an index score of above 80, from the states of Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Jharkhand need greater intervention. Conclusion and Implications for Translation: FSWs’ current age, age at commencement of sex work, and the number of clients were the indicators most-associated with HIV infection. Therefore, program and policy interventions should focus on FSWs who are younger than <25 years, who started selling sex at <22 years, and who have >10 clients. Key words: • Female Sex Worker • Kriged Map • Factor Analysis • Principle Component Analysis • HIV • Sexually Transmitted Infections   Copyright © 2021 Elangovan et al. Published by Global Health and Education Projects, Inc. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in this journal, is properly cited.

scholarly journals A14 Estimating time since HIV infection using next-generation sequencing data: A unique tool to help understand HIV prevention among high-risk young women in Ukraine

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francois Cholette ◽  
Christina Daniuk ◽  
Emma Lee ◽  
Rupert Capina ◽  
Eve Cheuk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Next Generation Sequencing ◽  
High Risk ◽  
Hiv Prevention ◽  
Hiv Infection ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Casual Sex ◽  
Transactional Sex ◽  
Next Generation ◽  
Generation Sequencing

Abstract The transitions study examines HIV risk among adolescent girls and young women through their sexual life course from first sex, to past and current engagement in casual sex, transactional sex, and, for some, formal sex work (FSW). Understanding the timing of HIV infection and the circumstances around early infection in young females is critical to HIV prevention interventions. We inferred time since HIV infection using next-generation sequencing (NGS) of the HIV pol gene isolated from cross-sectional samples among high-risk young women in Dnipro, Ukraine. Dried blood spots were collected on Whatman 903 cards from young women aged 14–24 engaged in casual sex (n = 894), transactional sex (n = 464), and FSW (n = 452). The HIV pol gene was sequenced using an in-house NGS HIV drug resistance mutation genotyping assay. Time since HIV infection was inferred using an online tool as described by Puller et al. (2017) freely available at https://hiv.biozentrum.unibas.ch/ETI/. The mean estimated time since HIV infection (ETI) for participants engaged in casual sex, transactional sex, and FSW is 1.98, 1.84, and 3.01 years, respectively. ETI was used to determine the duration of HIV infection for each participant and compared to the number of sexually active years prior to FSW. Among FSW, 61 per cent of participants were infected with HIV prior to entry into sex work. In general, ETI from NGS data suggests that FSWs were infected with HIV before entry into FSW. Expansion of targeted prevention programs beyond FSW could play an important role in mitigating HIV transmission at the population level.

Sex workers access to health and social care services: A social justice response

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-348
Author(s):  
Leigh-Ann Sweeney ◽  
Leonard Taylor ◽  
Michal Molcho
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Health And Social Care ◽  
Provision Of Services

This research explores service providers’ views on the barriers that prevent women in the sex work industry in Ireland from accessing co-ordinated health services. A purposive sample of eight service providers in the field of women’s health and social care in the West of Ireland were selected and interviewed for this study. The service providers were asked about their perception of the barriers of sex workers accessing health and social care services. Using thematic analysis, three key themes were identified: (1) lack of knowledge of women’s involvement in sex work; (2) identified barriers to health services; and (3) legislative and policy barriers to providing supportive services. While the service providers acknowledged that they do not knowingly provide services for sex workers, they all recognise that some of their service users are at risk of, and potentially are, involved in sex work. Yet, they were able to identify some of the barriers sex workers face when accessing their services. All these barriers were the result to the services’ limited capacity to support women engaging in sex work. At the time of data collection, the legislative context meant that selling sex under certain conditions was outside the law. This study highlights the consequences that criminalisation can have on the health of sex workers and the need for a paradigm shift in existing health and social care services. In this paper, we propose that a social justice rather than a criminal justice approach has the potential to address sex workers’ right to access appropriate health care. This paper gives due recognition to marginalised women, and advocates for better provision of services for women in the sex industry, while considering the new legislation of 2017.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document