The Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Safe Sex Behavior among Sex Workers

‘It’ first appeared in 1981 in the United States of America. Since then ‘it’ has only

grown larger and by the end of year 2006, some 1,106,400 people in US were living with ‘it’

and around 21% were undiagnosed. Some 56,300 people become infected with ‘it’ in 2006

alone. ‘It’ killed 14,561 people in the US and its dependent areas in 2007 and some 583,298

people have succumbed to ‘it’ as of 2007 in US and the death toll is rising every passing day.

(CDC. HIV Prevalence Estimates—United States, 2006. MMWR 2008; 57(39):1073-6.).The

‘it’ discussed here is HIV AIDS. We have failed miserably to curb its growth, leave alone

finding a cure, for this dreadful disease even after 28 years of its first appearance.

World over efforts are being made to prevent the transmission of Human Immune-

deficiency Virus from one individual to another. The main modes of HIV transmission are:

1. Sexual Contact – both homosexual as well as heterosexual

2. Injection drug use

3. Peri-natal (mother to child transmission)

4. Blood transfusion

In 2007, out of a total of 44,084 cases, 36,099 newly diagnosed cases of HIV

AIDS were found out to be caused due to sexual transmission. Thus, sexual transmission

consists of more than 81 % of the newly diagnosed cases. (CDC HIV/AIDS Surveillance

Report 2007) This important method of transmission can be easily controlled by education of

the public and use of simple contraceptive measures. Commercial sex workers are thus, an

important source of HIV infection to their clients and subsequently to the general population.

Thus, sex workers can be an important target in our efforts to reduce the transmission of HIV

AIDS. However, an important limitation is the knowledge o...

... middle of paper ...

...des and practices between 2000 and 2004]. Med Trop (Mars), 66(2), 157-161.

Marretta, S. M., Grove, T. K., & Grillo, J. F. (1991). Split palatal U-flap: a new technique for repair of caudal hard palate defects. J Vet Dent, 8(1), 5-8.

Morse, E. V., Simon, P. M., Balson, P. M., & Osofsky, H. J. (1992). Sexual behaviour patterns of customers of male street prostitutes. Arch Sex Behav, 21(4), 347-357.

Pleak, Richard R. and Heino F.L. Meyer-Bahlburg. 1990. Sexual behaviour and AIDS knowledge of young male prostitutes in Manhattan. Journal of Sex Research 27:557-587.

Waldorf, D. and D. Lauderback. 1991. Condom use of male sex workers in San Francisco (manuscript).

Wang, B., Li, X., McGuire, J., Kamali, V., Fang, X., & Stanton, B. (2009).

Understanding the Dynamics of Condom Use Among Female Sex Workers in China. Sex Transm Dis.