HIV prevention amongst sex workers: what works?

HIV prevention amongst sex workers: what works?

Experts recommend that campaigns aiming to prevent HIV amongst sex workers should initially focus on achieving three main outcomes: ¹⁰

• An increased level of condom use and safer sex amongst sex workers and their clients.
• Increased sex worker involvement and control over their working and social conditions.
• A reduction in the number of sexually transmitted infections occurring amongst sex workers.

There are several steps that can be taken towards achieving these goals. Effective measures include the provision of condoms; educating sex workers and their clients about HIV; encouraging peer education (where sex workers inform one another about HIV); helping sex workers to group together; reducing the stigma that communities attach to sex work; and ensuring that laws and policies respect sex workers’ human and citizen rights.