Publications on Female Sex Workers (FSW)

This report documents the findings of a qualitative investigation into the context of HIV vulnerability and risk for women who engage in sex work on board foreign boats.

Bangladesh has a total population of 156.6 million (mid 2009) and is ranked as the seventh most populous country in the world.

Clients of FSWs serve as potential bridges for HIV transmission from the high-risk FSWs to the low-risk general population, making them a key target for intervention.

Behavioral sentinel surveillance (BSS) has been conducted by NCHADS to document behavior changes among sentinel groups since 1997. The objectives of the BSS 2010 are:

• To document HIV related risk behaviors among selected sentinel groups
• To track trends in risk behaviors among most at risk groups
• To explore common practices toward the use of VCT, STI clinics and other health services

This study demonstrates how multiple risk factors are situated and vary by types of sex work environments in a sample of 348 migrant FSWs in Beijing. Participants reported high rates of clients' refusal to use condoms (76%), unsafe sex with both clients (32%), non-paid regular partners (e.g., boyfriend or husband) (76%), and a STI symptom (79%) last year.

The goals of this study were to document ART efforts in a resource-limited setting with high prevalence of IDUs, to identify high-risk groups for failure who may benefit from more frequent monitoring or other interventions and to assess the potential for delayed diagnosis of treatment failure when using targeted testing based on clinical and immunologic criteria.

In China, HIV prevalence among the general population is 0.06%, with the number of infections continuing to increase. At the end of 2009, an estimated 740,000 adults and children were living with HIV (range 560,000‐920,000) and another 105,000 had AIDS.

Until recently, Pakistan was considered as a ‘low HIV prevalence, high risk country’ in relation to HIV. The country is now classified as having a concentrated epidemic, with an HIV prevalence of more than 5% among injecting drug users.

Although the prevalence of HIV in the general population is low (0.2%) and is mainly concentrated among injecting drug users (IDUs) in Jakarta, West Java and Bali, the epidemic has now spread to other key populations at higher risk such as non‐injecting partners of IDUs, sex workers and their clients.

Beginning in the late 1980s, the HIV epidemic increased rapidly in Thailand, particularly in the upper Northern region. In 1990‐91, soon after it was observed that the HIV epidemic was spreading among injecting drug users and sex workers, the government acted decisively, launching a nationwide campaign to reduce HIV transmission.