Female sex workers in Africa

Epidemiology overview, data gaps, ways forward

Bibliographic Data

ID2177652
AuthorsElizabeth Ngugi (0000-0001-5835-2752, Compugen (Israel), corresponding author), E N Ngugi, E A Roth (0000-0002-9128-0997), E Roth (0000-0003-1909-2462), Theresa Mastin, M G Nderitu, Seema Yasmin
Year2012
Volume9
Issue3
Pages148-153
Publication date2012-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSAHARA-J Journal of Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1729-0376 • E-ISSN: 1813-4424
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17290376.2012.743825
PMID23237069
OpenAlexW2150462203
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited53

More than three decades after the first reported case of AIDS (1983), Africa continues to experience unacceptable levels of new HIV infections. East Africa and Southern Africa remain most affected by the epidemic with 34% of the global burden of infections concentrated in 10 Southern African countries (D’Costa, Plummer, Bowmer, Fransen, Piot, Ronald, et al. 1985; Joint United Nations Programme, 2005; Moses, Plummer, \nNgugi, Nagelkerke, Anzala & Ndinya-Achola 1991; Ngugi, Simonsen, Bosire, Ronald, Plummer, Camero, et al. 1988; WHO Library Cataloguing in Publication Data 2011). Some of these countries reported the first case of HIV infection early in the epidemic \n(Ethiopia 1984; Kenya 1985). Female sex workers (FSWs) comprise an important sub-population in the epidemiology of HIV infection in many countries as evidenced by HIV prevalence amongst FSWs and their clients often being 10–20-fold higher than that in the rest of the general population (Laga, Monoka, Kivuvu, Malele, Tuliza, Nzila, et al. 1993). For example, in Ethiopia, after the first HIV infection was reported in 1984, only 4 years \nlater, the HIV prevalence amongst FSWs had already risen to 17% (Cote, Sobela, Dzokolo, Nzambi, Asamoall-Adu, Labbe, et al.). Today, even within Africa’s generalized epidemic, research shows that FSWs remain an important epidemiological subpopulation \nin relation to HIV-related risk throughout the continent (Cowan, Langhaug, Hargrove, Jaffers, Mhurengwe, Searthout, et al. 2005; Ghose, Swendeman, George & Chowdhury \n2008; McClelland, Graham, Richardson, Peshu, Masese, Wanje, et al. 2010). These findings point to the need to further understand the social, behavioural, biological and structural factors that place African FSWs at high risk of HIV infection and establish \nstrategies to reduce HIV transmission in this population (Stefan, Beyrer, Muessig, Poteat, Wirtz, Decker, et al. 2012)

Environmental health · Geography · Pathology · Population · Research methodology · Sex workers · HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk · HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions · Medicine · Sex work and related issues · Epidemiology

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