Sex workers and AIDS<\/p>\n
Out of the third International Conference on AIDS in Asia and
\nthe Pacific in Chiang Mai, Thailand, has come a piece of news
\nthat deserves our attention. As has been reported, sex workers
\nand support groups from 20 counties in this region, including
\nIndonesia, agreed in a side meeting in Chiang Mai to set up a
\nnetwork to respond to allegations that prostitutes are spreading
\nthe deadly Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).<\/p>\n
As was pointed out by Kartini Salmah, an activist of the
\nMalaysian sex workers support organization Ikhlas, \"sex work\" is
\ntruly a community issue and therefore anti-AIDS campaigns would
\ndo a good deal better targeting people's behavior, rather than
\nsingling out prostitutes as a main cause of the spread of AIDS,
\nparticularly in Asia and other countries of the Third World.<\/p>\n
We believe that the threat AIDS poses to societies is well
\nrecognized in this region. The specter of certain death on such a
\nmassive scale aside, the warning by Myo Thant, a senior economist
\nwith the Asian Development Bank, deserves to be heeded. The
\nenormous cost of fighting the disease, according to Myo Thant, is
\nthreatening economic development in Asia. \"Let there be no
\nmisunderstanding. The AIDS epidemic is the enemy of Asian
\neconomic progress,\" Thant warned.<\/p>\n
The task of fighting AIDS in this region is gigantic. Given
\nthe turn which the spread of AIDS is taking at present, experts
\nare predicting that by the turn of this century, which is only a
\nfew years away, Asia and the Pacific will be overtaking the
\nAfrican continent as the epicenter of the lethal disease. By the
\nyear 2000, it is forecast that this region will account for some
\n25 percent of all cases of HIV cases worldwide.<\/p>\n
Such a development would obviously complicate things
\nenormously. As more funds would be needed to counter the
\nspreading epidemic, growth would slow down, not to mention the
\nstrain which the disease may place on the human resources of the
\ncountries concerned.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the difficulties which public health workers and
\nanti-AIDS activists face are numerous and include many aspects,
\nincluding the cultural and traditional perspectives. Measures
\nthat would have to be taken on purely rational considerations --
\nsuch as promoting the use of condoms -- often cannot be taken
\nbecause of such considerations. And of course, while the disease
\nhas already assumed the proportions of a national health threat,
\nmany governments lack the huge funds needed to conduct an
\neffective anti-AIDS campaign.<\/p>\n
Under such circumstances it is not difficult to see that many
\npeople are looking for scapegoats. And obviously one of the
\neasiest groups to target is sex workers since it is widely
\nunderstood that casual sexual relations are one of the main ways
\nthe disease is spread.<\/p>\n
However, there can be no denying that sex work is a community
\nissue. In the fight against AIDS everybody must become involved
\nand that includes not only government, social workers and
\nactivists, but also the sex workers' clients and brothel
\noperators.<\/p>\n
If there is one thing the new network could do to help fight
\nthe spreading AIDS epidemic in their midst, it is by promoting
\nthis insight among as many people as possible, even while placing
\nthe emphasis of its work on promoting the rights of sex workers.
\nHopefully, this will help promote better, safer conduct among
\npeople, which is at present perhaps still the only way to counter
\nthe disease.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/sex-workers-and-aids-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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