“HIV Is Our Friend”

2020 ◽  
pp. 29-52
Author(s):  
Chaitanya Lakkimsetti
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Initial Response ◽  
Risk Groups ◽  
Leadership Role ◽  
Sex Worker ◽  
Aids Epidemic ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Sexually Marginalized ◽  
Hiv Aids

This chapter provides an overview of HIV/AIDS policies as well as how sexually marginalized groups are drawn into biopower programs as “high-risk” groups. In 1983, when HIV/AIDS was first detected among sex workers in India, the state’s initial response was to blame the sex workers themselves as well as to forcefully test them and confine them in prison. However, it proved impossible to incarcerate every sex worker and to stop the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Instead, I argue, ultimately a consensus formed that supported giving marginalized groups a leadership role in tackling the epidemic. Drawing on ethnographic observations and the HIV/AIDS policy of the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), this chapter also highlights how these biopower projects deepened the involvement of high-risk groups as they moved from simple prevention to behavioral change. Ultimately, communities became extensions of biopower projects as they implemented these programs at the day-to-day level.

Sexual Laborers and Entrepreneurial Women: Articulating Collective Identity in India’s HIV/AIDS Response

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gowri Vijayakumar
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Sex Worker ◽  
Aids Epidemic ◽  
Life Trajectories ◽  
Political Orientations ◽  
Interview Methods ◽  
Symbolic Processes ◽  
Hiv Aids

AbstractThis article uses ethnographic and interview methods to compare two groups of sex workers in Bangalore, both of which formed during the response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In this context, donor priorities fundamentally shaped the landscape for sex worker organizations, but the two groups formed very different collective identities. I argue that the content of collective identity is not predetermined by the conditions set by global Northern funding. Instead, I show how collective identity is articulated, in a locally specific process of relating political orientations to local associational fields, within, but not predetermined by, global funding constraints. As each group positioned itself in a distinct local associational field, it articulated a distinct collective identity, the Women’s Collective as entrepreneurial women (a more respectable collective identity), and the Union as sexual laborers (a more transgressive one). Articulation unfolded through material as well as symbolic processes, shaping members’ life trajectories and their understandings of them. This article complicates accounts of Northern funding and institutional opportunities as predetermining the paths and visions of social movements.

scholarly journals The Sexual Behavior of Male Sexual Partner of Tranvestite in the Prevention Efforts of HIV/AIDS Transmission

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Azinar ◽  
Anggipita Budi Mahardining
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Behavior ◽  
High Risk ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Risk Groups ◽  
Regular Partner ◽  
Multiple Sexual Partners ◽  
Multiple Partners ◽  
Biological And Behavioral Surveillance ◽  
Male Sexual Partner ◽  
Hiv Aids

Transvestite is one of the high risk groups in HIV/AIDS. Integrated Biological and Behavioral Surveillance (IBBS) states that in 2011, the HIV prevalence among waria in Indonesia has reached 22%, increasing from 2009 (18.96%). Such occurrence is because transvestite usually has multiple partners in intercourse both oral and anal sex, and rarely use condoms. Similarly, the male regular partners of transvestite also have sex with multiple sexual partners. Therefore, they also have a high risk of spread of HIV/AIDS. The objective of this study is to analyze sexual behavior of male regular partner of transvestite in Efforts to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. The study was carried out in 2014 using qualitative approach. Data was collected by in-depth interview on 6 male regular partner of transvestite through purposive sampling and triangulation informants of peer educators. The result shows that the use of condom on male regular partners of transvestite is still low and they inconsistently use when having sex with transvestite, female sex workers and female girlfriend. Their knowledge about HIV/AIDS is not good, and some regular partner of transvestite also felt susceptibility to contracting HIV. However, the perceived severity and perceived of benefits male regular partner of transvestite is good about HIV /AIDS despite the barrier of perceived and perceived self-efficacy is low related access to condoms.

The sexual networks of female sex workers and potential HIV transmission risk: an entertainment venue-based study in Shaanxi, China

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 402-409
Author(s):  
Huijun Liu ◽  
Min Zhao ◽  
Ying Wang ◽  
Marcus W Feldman ◽  
Qunying Xiao
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
General Population ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Female Sex Workers ◽  
Risk Groups ◽  
Sexual Networks ◽  
Commercial Sex ◽  
Sex Partners ◽  
Sexual Network ◽  
Hiv Aids

People involved in commercial sex are thought to be at high risk for human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) transmission. To explore the characteristics of female sex workers’ (FSWs) sexual networks and how FSWs and their sex partners could serve as ‘bridges’ in HIV/AIDS transmission, egocentric sexual networks (where a subject is asked to identify his or her sexual contacts and their relationships) of 66 FSWs in Xi'an city, Shaanxi Province of China, were studied. Convenience sampling was used to collect FSWs’ socio-demographic and sexual behavior data, which we analyzed using social network and descriptive statistical methods. Results show that some egocentric sexual networks were connected by sex partners, and these were integrated into several components of a sexual network. According to centrality indicators, FSWs and their commercial sex partners (especially regular clients) served as key nodes within high-risk groups and as bridges between high-risk groups and the general population. The cluster of high-risk groups with cohesive sub-networks had larger network size (P < 0.001), more complex network structures, and more high-risk members (P < 0.05) than other isolated networks. The sexual network of FSWs was characterized by multiple sexual relations (680), unstable relationships (50.15%), and a high rate of inconsistent condom use with non-commercial sex partners (31.22%). By linking commercial and non-commercial sexual networks, the FSWs and their clients can become effective bridges for HIV/AIDS spread from high-risk groups to the general population.

Challenging “Bare Life”

2020 ◽  
pp. 53-75
Author(s):  
Chaitanya Lakkimsetti
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Sexual Minorities ◽  
Risk Groups ◽  
The State ◽  
Peer Educators ◽  
Bare Life ◽  
Police Violence ◽  
Aids Epidemic ◽  
Outreach Workers ◽  
Hiv Aids

This chapter draws on Giorgio Agamben’s concept of “bare life” to show how prior to HIV/AIDS, sexual minorities experienced the state only through “raw power,” where rampant violence and abuse were the norm and the state freely consigned individuals to death by depriving them of resources. The management of “risk” in the light of the HIV/AIDS epidemic brought attention to the violence faced by sexual minorities, especially arbitrary police violence supported by criminal laws. During the earlier phases of the epidemic, peer educators and outreach workers—who were drawn from “high-risk” groups themselves—faced challenges and even violence in reaching out to their peers. Even carrying condoms for outreach purposes was seen as evidence of “criminal” sexual activity. This tension between peer educators and police reveals internal contradictions in the state; peer educators, who are at the cusp of state juridical and biopower, bring this contradiction in the state to the foreground.

Legalizing Sex

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaitanya Lakkimsetti
Keyword(s):  
Sex Workers ◽  
Sexual Minorities ◽  
Risk Groups ◽  
The State ◽  
Effective Response ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Aids Epidemic ◽  
Indian State ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Hiv Aids

Based on twenty months of ethnographic research, the book looks at the relationship between the HIV/AIDS epidemic and rights-based struggles of sexual minorities in contemporary India. Sex workers, gay men, and transgender people in India have become visible in the Indian public sphere since the mid-1980s, when AIDS became an issue in India. Whereas sexual minorities were previously stigmatized and criminalized because of the threat of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the Indian state started to fold these groups into national HIV/AIDS policies as “high-risk” groups for an effective response to the epidemic. The book argues that HIV/AIDS transformed the relationship between sexual minorities and the state from one focused on juridical exclusion to one focused on inclusion through biopower. The new relationship between the state and sexual minorities brought about by HIV/AIDS and the shared power communities felt with the state enabled them to demand rights and citizenship from the Indian state. In addition to paying attention to these transformations, the book also comparatively captures the rights-based struggles of sexual minorities in India who have successfully mobilized against a colonial era anti-sodomy law, successfully petitioned in the courts for recognition of gender identity, and stalled attempts to criminalize sexual labor. This book uniquely brings together the struggles of sex workers and transgender and gay groups that are often studied separately.

Stigma, Discrimination, and Ostracization: HIV/AIDS Infection in Nigeria

2003 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adesola O. Oyelese
Keyword(s):  
Health Professionals ◽  
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Infected People ◽  
Aids Epidemic ◽  
Major Constraint ◽  
Acquired Immunodeficiency ◽  
Immunodeficiency Syndrome ◽  
And Control ◽  
Hiv Aids

The AIDS epidemic continues and HIV-infected persons continue to suffer stigmatization and discrimination in Nigeria. The results of an open-ended questionnaire administered non-randomly in Ile-Ife and Ilesa in the late 1990s confirm this. Six questions on Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) were asked; 83 (36.4%) males and 145 (63.6%) females aged between 11 and 60 years responded. The respondents included 101 students, 49 civil servants, 39 artisans and traders. Others included 29 health professionals (doctors and nurses, etc.), 8 teachers, and 2 commercial sex workers. The median of negative responses (rejection) is 42.2%. It is concluded that there still exists a significant but suppressed or subtle stigmatization and discrimination against HIV-infected people, a major constraint in the management and control of HIV/AIDS.

scholarly journals Analysis of HIV Transmission of Commercial Sex Wokers and Their Clients with Condom Use Treatment

2019 ◽  
Vol 125 ◽  
pp. 05003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sutimin ◽  
Siti Khabibah ◽  
Dita Anies Munawwaroh ◽  
R. Heri Soelistyo U
Keyword(s):  
Condom Use ◽  
Global Stability ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Hiv Transmission ◽  
Equilibrium States ◽  
Endemic Equilibrium ◽  
Reproduction Ratio ◽  
Aids Epidemic ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Hiv Aids

A model of the HIV/AIDS epidemic among sex workers and their clients is discussed to study the effects of condom use in the prevention of HIV transmission. The model is addressed to determine the existence of equilibrium states, and then analyze the global stability of disease free and endemic equilibrium states. The global stability of equilibria depends on the vales of the basic reproduction ratio derived from the next generation matrix of the model. The endemic equilibrium state is globally stable when the ratio exceeds unity. The simulation results are presented to discuss the effect of condom use treatment in preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS among sex workers and their clients. The results show that the effectiveness level in using condoms in sexual intercourse corresponds to the decreasing level of the spread of HIV/AIDS. We use Maple and Matlab software to simulate the impact of condom use.

scholarly journals “Nothing About Us Without Us”: Reading Protests against Oppressive Knowledge Production as Guidelines for Solidarity Research

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dilara Yarbrough
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Relevant Research ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Sex Worker ◽  
Marginalized Communities ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Ethical Policy ◽  
Production Practice ◽  
Academic Researchers

Drawing from my analysis of sex worker and homeless protests as well as my experience doing ethnographic research with people experiencing homelessness and people in the sex trade, I put forth recommendations for ethical, policy-relevant research with groups of people who experience routine, normalized violence, and who are frequently silenced and misrepresented by academics and policy makers. This article analyzes protests against what activists identify as oppressive knowledge production by “outsiders” who are not sex workers or homeless. Protest events against research “about us without us” occurred between 2012 and 2015, and targeted academic researchers and policymakers. I draw lessons from marginalized groups’ protests against knowledge production by outsider “experts” to present three problems with traditional poverty research: pathologization, paternalism, and extractive exotification. I use my observations of protests and service provision to develop guidelines for solidarity research, a knowledge production practice that prioritizes the needs and perspectives of marginalized communities.

The Scope of Adaptation of HIV Prevention Policy Actions by UNAIDS in the Context of Bangladesh

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 16-29
Author(s):  
Sovan Dey
Keyword(s):  
Hiv Prevention ◽  
Gender Equity ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Risk Groups ◽  
Policy Position ◽  
People Living With Hiv ◽  
Prevention Policy ◽  
Programme Implementation ◽  
The Government ◽  
Hiv Aids

HIV/AIDS, a worldwide epidemic, affects Bangladesh, not only among the high risk groups, but also the general population. The number of HIV cases has increased recently, especially among injecting drug users, men who have sex with men, and female sex workers. Furthermore, unsafe blood supplies to hospitals and cross-border migration have worsened the current situation in the country. It is necessary for the Government and policy makers to consider revising the existing HIV/AIDS policy. Comparative content analysis is employed to analyze the National Policy on HIV/AIDS Prevention of Bangladesh (1997) with The Essential Policy Actions for Prevention proposed by UNAIDS (2005) in its policy position paper, `Intensifying HIV Prevention’. Recommendations are made for amendments to the Bangladesh policy after the analysis; the inclusion of religious leaders, people living with HIV/AIDS involved in policy making and programme implementation, and review and reform in some of the current legal frameworks regarding gender equity and stigma.

scholarly journals Performance and modification of EGCRISC among hepatitis C virus high-risk groups

2020 ◽  
Vol 148 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. M. El-Ghitany ◽  
Y. M. Alkassabany ◽  
A. G. Farghaly
Keyword(s):  
Hepatitis C Virus ◽  
Hepatitis C ◽  
High Risk ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Screening Tool ◽  
Risk Groups ◽  
Hcv Infection ◽  
Human Immune Deficiency Virus ◽  
Hiv Patients ◽  
Increased Risk

Abstract We have previously shown that the Egyptian Hepatitis C Virus Risk Score (EGCRISC), an Egyptian hepatitis C virus (HCV) risk-based screening tool, to be valid and cost-effective. Certain behaviours, occupations and diseases have been shown to be associated with an increased risk of exposure to HCV infection and constitute a major population reservoir of HCV infection. This study investigated the efficacy of EGCRISC in selected high-risk groups by testing 863 participants from four groups: slaughterhouse workers, illicit drug users (IDUs), female sex workers and human immune deficiency virus (HIV) patients. Data for this study were collected on EGCRISC and another pre-designed risk factor questionnaire. Sera were tested for HCV antibodies by ELISA. EGCRISC, at lower cut-off points, showed significantly good performance (P < 0.05) in all four groups except for females <45 years, but was reliable in detecting HCV cases (sensitivity: 84.21% and negative predictive value: 94.5%). Specific scores for IDUs and HIV patients were developed that showed high accuracy (P < 0.001). A modified EGCRISC for high-risk groups (EGCRISC-HRGs) was shown to be a valid tool that is recommended for use in high-risk populations if no other specific screening tool is available or universal screening is applied. EGCRISC for IDUs (EGCRISC-IDUs) and EGCRISC for HIV patients (EGCRISC-HIV) are useful tools for preselecting potentially HCV-infected cases for further testing in settings where serological analysis is not readily available or accessible.

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