A recent report on HIV put together by the US
Centres for Disease Control (CDC) has stirred
panic in South Africa.
The research by the CDC was carried out in
conjunction with the University of California,
the Anova Health Institute and the Wits
Reproductive Health and HIV Institute.
According to Times Live, the experiment was
carried out to capture HIV prevalence and
treatment rates among sex workers by the
Department of Health for six months.
The release of the study report has been
delayed by the Department of Health for six
months.
Over two thousand sex workers in
Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban were
tested for HIV over a six-month period.
Statistics from the investigation shows that
Durban’s sex workers have a 53% HIV
infection rate; Cape Town’s almost 40%.
The study found that only 19% of sex workers
who knew they were HIV-positive were on
treatment in Johannesburg, compared with
about 25% in Cape Town and Durban.
Great mphasises are laid on the need for more
sex workers to be given antiretrovirals, based
on the high HIV prevalence rate.
Experts inform that treatment makes one non
infectious.
Control public health specialist Helen Savva
said the data showed that it was essential to
get sex workers treated with antiretroviral
drugs.
“If we want to get the South African HIV
epidemic under control we have to [treat]
groups that have the highest rates of HIV.
“Sex workers are a marginalised population.
Their lifestyle is not always conducive to taking
a pill a day. They travel across borders with
truck drivers. There is a lot of alcohol and drug
abuse.”
South Africa director for the CDC, Nancy
Knight, said the study revealed that more than
70% of sex workers in Durban and
Johannesburg knew that they were HIV-
positive.
Knight said there were clinics in Pretoria and
Johannesburg that offered health services
specifically to sex workers.
In a pilot project in Durban, treatment is taken
to sex workers on the streets or in brothels.
The aim of the project is to ensure that they
receive medication and testing, with no cause
to feel embarrassed.
There are talks by the department regarding
the possibility of giving HIV-negative sex
workers access a preventive HIV pill.
The pill for prevention against the infection
being talked about, is called Truvada.
In a related development on the prevalence of
HIV,a report by the Lagos State AIDS Control
Agency (LSACA) has shown that no fewer than
470,000 residents of Lagos state have been
infected by the dreaded HIV.

Source: https://www.naij.com/666531-shocker-seventy-percent-sex-workers-hiv-test-result.html

Choi Meziko abeg. Begin come bk o

Hmmmmmn.
there is always suspicion about the motive behind commercial sex as occupation.