Sex workers want voice in AIDS prevention

Sex workers want voice in AIDS prevention

Patricia Reaney, Reuters/Bangkok

Sex workers, tired of being blamed for spreading Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), said on Thursday they can help fight the deadly disease but are being shunned by governments and agencies.

"We are sex experts. We teach a lot of people, men and women all over the world, how to have sex. If we teach people how to have sex, why don't we teach people how to have safe sex?" Paulo Longo said at an international AIDS meeting in the Thai capital.

The retired Brazilian sex worker, now a psychologist, said stigma and discrimination had prevented workers in the world's oldest profession from playing a bigger role in the fight to halt the spread of the sexually transmitted virus.

"They say we are not educated enough, that we are too demanding, that we use drugs all the time so we don't concentrate," said Longo.

But given the chance, he and others like him say they could make a difference.

"There is evidence that involving sex workers helps a lot," he said. "We can help to minimize the impact of the epidemic."

UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, agrees sex workers should be more involved and equal partners in the consultative process of how to fight the epidemic.

"UNAIDS is trying to ensure their voice is heard," said Aurorita Mendoza of UNAIDS. "We are acting as facilitators for sex workers with organizers of national programs."

The 15th International AIDS Conference has highlighted the impact of AIDS on women and the importance of condoms in preventing the spread of the virus.

For some women, their only risk factor was being a faithful wife. In the worst affected countries in Africa and Asia, many women cannot insist that their husband use a condom.

But Carol Jenkins, a medical anthropologist based in Thailand and an adviser on HIV/AIDS, said studies showed that protecting sex workers from HIV protects the whole society.

"You have a constituency out there that is very affected by a serious epidemic that is going to ruin your economy. Why aren't you listening to this constituency?" she said.

Janelle Fawkes, president of the Scarlet Alliance, an association of sex workers in Australia, said governments were scared to be connected to sex worker programs.

"Sex workers are the professionals in promoting safe sex in their workplace," said Fawkes, who demonstrated techniques she uses to convince clients to have safe sex.

"What has been successful is when sex workers get together themselves and are empowered to pass on messages and share skills and strategies to get clients to use condoms and make it part of the service in a way that is exciting."

Sex workers also argue that the 100 percent condom policy doesn't work because it increases the stigma and violence against them and introduces police and brothel owners as regulators of condom use.

They are not against using condoms, but say mandating it and registering sex workers and forcing them to have health tests violates their right to privacy and free choice.

"In Australia, where sex workers are self-regulating their own sexual health, they have lower rates of sexually transmitted infections than the general community," said Fawkes.

"That's the way we should be going, that's the way that has been successful."