Publications - Released in 2001
In China, in the early 1980s, sexually transmitted diseases (STD) started to increase steeply. Sex workers and their clients appeared to play an important role in the spread of STD. Prostitution is illegal in China, and therefore no specific services exist for sex workers unless they are arrested and detained in re-education centres. Staff of a maternal and neonatal hospital in Guangzhou felt the need for an STD care and prevention programme for sex workers outside detention, and started a programme within their hospital, which was unique in the Chinese context.
Given the high prevalence of STD, the potential for the further spread of HIV is clearly present. STD care and prevention programmes for these women, outside detention, are urgently needed, and appear also to be feasible in China.