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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1996

Prostitutes, prostitution and STD/HIV transmission in mainland China.

China's opening to the world has enabled massive social and economic transformations and the liberalization of many policies, but also the rise of coincident social problems and diseases. A revival of wide-scale female prostitution since the 1980s has now accelerated to a nationwide dilemma. Prostitutes have long been considered to be reservoirs, if not 'vectors' for the transmission of sexual diseases. A well established STD epidemic in the last decade, plus the presence of growing HIV infections in China now, underscore the need to evaluate the prostitute's role in STD and HIV propagation. This report examines unobtrusive data on female prostitutes in the People's Republic of China through an analysis of prison records from eight sexually segregated prisons (six in Sichuan Province and two in Guizhou Province), two female re-education institutions, and arrest records for convicted prostitutes from four counties in Sichuan Province and Chengdu City (also in Sichuan). Collectively, these data represent 2057 female prostitution cases, and span the years 1988-1990. Demographics are examined to enable a profile of the prostitute as based on data reviewed, and this is contrasted to the stereotype of the prostitute as described in government propaganda against prostitution. STD prevalence rates in the samples are examined and contrasted to two other studies on STDs in nonprostitution populations made available to the authors. Prostitute arrest records reveal a majority had active STD infection[s] at the time of their apprehension, with gonorrhea being the most common bacterium; in many instances, prostitutes also had a history of other sexually transmitted diseases. Thus, data examined support the notion of prostitution as an agent in STD transmission. Presence of HIV infection in prostitutes could not be corroborated through sampled records, nor could prostitution itself be confirmed as an agent in HIV transmission at present. However, given the type of clients serviced by prostitutes in China, a prostitute's own risk of HIV infection is discussed. Control measures by the Chinese government to curb prostitution are examined at both national and provincial levels. Questions are raised as to the effectiveness of present tactics as adjunctive strategies in reducing STD infection and HIV risk in the prostitution population.

China↗
PubMed1997

Demographic data on prostitutes from Bulgaria--a recruitment country for international (migratory) prostitutes.

The study was aimed at investigating the conditions and circumstances for the recruitment of prostitutes, as well as their reproductive history, working conditions, knowledge of and attitudes to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and use of prophylactic antibiotic therapy of these diseases. Two hundred prostitutes were investigated by in-depth interviews at STD clinics, private practices and hotels. Of the 200 prostitutes, 8 (4%) were less than 15 years old and 32 (16%) more than 25 years old. Most of the women came from rural villages. Half of them were gypsies. Most had a boyfriend (often the pimp). One-quarter had been or were on their way abroad to prostitute. Half were migrating within Bulgaria to prostitute. They claimed a high rate of condom use with customers, but seldom with their pimps or boyfriends. About one-tenth used antibiotics prophylactically. They had knowledge of classical STDs and HIV/AIDS but only in exceptional cases had they heard about chlamydial and human papillomavirus infections. They often cohabited with a female friend also often practising prostitution. It was concluded that recruitment is often easy as the prostitute can earn more from only one contact with a customer than their parents earn from work in a month. Symptoms suggestive of STD were very common in the prostitutes, i.e. in 43%. Bulgaria is a recruitment area for international prostitutes.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Family affiliation and prostitution in a cultural context: career onsets of Taiwanese prostitutes.

American researchers emphasize family disaffiliation resulting from negative experiences as an important career contingency for prostitutes. They suggest that cohesive families insulate daughters from entering prostitution, an implication that ignores cultural variations within the United States and worldwide. This study examined the nature of family affiliations among prostitutes in Taiwan, a nation characterized by strong family cohesion and widespread prostitution. The traditional status and role of daughters in Taiwanese families is described. A sample of 89 prostitutes were interviewed in Taipei. The majority had good or very good relationships with their parents before the women left home and continued to maintain such relationships. Only 10% mentioned negative family experiences as precipitating factors in the decision to enter prostitution. A typology of career onsets was drafted. About one third of the sample entered the occupation out of a sense of filial obligation toward their families of origin. Other precipitating factors included paying off their own or husbands' debts, upgrading their financial status, deriving other satisfactions from the life-style, escaping from difficulties with parents or husbands, and being victimized by force or fraud. Several social changes are likely to lessen the importance of filial obligation as a career contingency of prostitution. Speculations about the future of Taiwanese prostitution are offered.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Prostitution and risk of HIV: female prostitutes in London.

OBJECTIVE: To measure the prevalence of HIV and to describe established risk factors in female prostitutes. DESIGN: A cross sectional survey. SETTING: A genitourinary medicine clinic, streets, and magistrates' courts in London. SUBJECTS: 280 female prostitutes recruited between April 1989 and August 1991. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Infection with HIV-1, reported risk behaviours, and prevalence of sexually transmitted infections. RESULTS: 228 of the women had HIV tests, and two (0.9% (95% confidence interval 0% to 2.1%)) were infected with HIV-1. Reported use of condoms was high for commercial clients and low for non-paying partners: 98% (251/255) of women used condoms with all clients and 12% (25/207) with non-paying partners for vaginal intercourse. Twenty two women were current or past injecting drug users. Of the 193 women examined for sexually transmitted infections, 27 had an acute infection (gonorrhoea, chlamydia, trichomonas, or primary genital herpes) at the time of interview. Infection was associated with younger age and increasing numbers of non-paying sexual partners, but not with duration of prostitution, numbers of clients, or reports of condom failures. When age and numbers of non-paying partners were analysed by logistic regression they remained significantly associated with sexually transmitted infections. CONCLUSIONS: A large and diverse sample of prostitutes had a low prevalence of infection with HIV and high levels of use of condoms in commercial sex. There was a significant risk of other sexually transmitted infections associated with prostitutes' non-commercial sexual relationships, in which unprotected sex is common. Interventions to reduce the risk of sexually transmitted infections in prostitutes should address both commercial and non-commercial sexual partnerships.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1993

Prostitution and risk of HIV: male partners of female prostitutes.

OBJECTIVE: To describe risk behaviours for infection with HIV in male sexual partners of female prostitutes. DESIGN: A cross sectional study. SETTING: Genitourinary medicine clinic, St Mary's Hospital, London. SUBJECTS: 112 self identified male sexual partners of female prostitutes: 101 who reported commercial sexual relationships only, five who reported non-commercial relationships only, and six who reported both commercial and non-commercial relationships. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Reported risk behaviours for infection with HIV. RESULTS: Of the 40 men who had had previous HIV tests or were tested during the study, two (5%) were infected with HIV. Of the men who would answer the questions, 34/94 reported having sex with other men, 2/105 reported using injected drugs, 8/105 had a history of blood transfusion, 14/108 reported a past history of gonorrhoea, 44/102 reported paying for sex abroad, and 8/92 said that they had also been paid for sex. Of the 55 men who reported paying for vaginal intercourse in the past year, 45 (82%) said that they had always used a condom. In contrast, of the 11 non-paying partners of prostitutes, only two (18%) reported ever using a condom with their partners. CONCLUSIONS: Men who have sex with female prostitutes cannot be assumed to be at risk of infection with HIV only by this route: homosexual contact may place them at greater risk. Despite the heterogeneity among male sexual partners of prostitutes, patterns of use of condoms were uniform when they were considered as a reflection of the type of relationship a man had with a female prostitute rather than a consequence of an individual's level of risk.

Condoms↗
PubMed2001

Morality is not a curable disease: probing the history of venereal diseases, morality and prostitution. [Review of: Spongberg, M. Feminizing venereal disease: the body of the prostitute in nineteenth-century discourse, 1997; Fisher, T. Prostitution and the Victorians, 1997; Mooij, A. Out of otherness: characters and narrators in the Dutch venereal disease debates 1850-1990, 1998; Merians, LE. The secret malady: venereal disease in eighteenth century Britain and France, 1996; Brandt, A; Rozin P. Morality and health, 1997; Lewis, M. Thorns on the rose: the history of sexually transmitted diseases in Australia in international perspective, 1998; Lundberg, A. Care and coercion: medical knowledge, social policy and patients with venereal disease in Sweden, 1999].

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Historiography↗
PubMed1988

Prostitution in Sheffield: differences between prostitutes.

This study to assess differences between street walking prostitutes and sauna girls who attended this clinic in 1986 and 1987 showed that fewer street walkers used barrier methods for disease prevention with clients or accepted tests for antibody to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) when offered and more street walkers practised their profession in both Sheffield and London. They therefore represent a potential pathway for the heterosexual spread of HIV to the region. Trichomonas vaginalis was the only organism more commonly isolated from street walkers. Other sexually transmitted diseases diagnosed, and the sources of acquisition of gonococcal cervicitis, were similar in both groups of prostitutes. Prostitutes rarely used barrier methods with their regular consorts, who were found to be responsible for most cases of gonorrhoea in both groups. As 11 out of 58 prostitutes attending were found to have dysplasia on routine cervical cytological examination, we suggest that all prostitutes be advised to undergo cytology yearly.

Contraception Behavior↗
PubMed1990

"Prostitutes as pariah in the age of AIDS": a content analysis of coverage of women prostitutes in The New York Times and the Washington Post September 1985-April 1988.

Misrepresentation in the media portrays women prostitutes as sexual transmitters of AIDS to men. Yet careful study of the available data shows male-to-female transmission of the HIV virus is the overwhelming mode of heterosexual transmission of AIDS. Content analysis is performed to analyze the role newspaper coverage played from 1985 through early 1988 in the social construction of prostitutes as a new target group for AIDS. The results show little concern for the health of prostitutes at risk for AIDS, but rather for their role as possible disease vectors. That women prostitutes were eagerly singled out as a target group despite a dearth of evidence points in large measure to their precarious position in society. And it highlights the impact media has when it acts as an uncritical sounding-board for government and medical press releases about a disease with dire social as well as physical consequences.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1997

[Prostitution, the state, and society in Spain. The regulation of prostitution under the monarchy of Isabel II (1854-1868)].

After two centuries of official abolition, regulated prostitution came back during the reign of Isabella II and particularly from the Progresist period onwards (1854-1856). After recalling the origins of such regulations (1845-1847) and the rules applied in Madrid, which are worth noting because of their importance and influence, we are presenting the different decrees enforced in some regions of Spain (and particularly in the province of Cadiz), in a chronological way which enables the reader to understand the formation, administrative and medical, of these regulations. Instead of putting the prostitute in a house of correction or expelling her from the town as done before, these regulations would put her in a brothel, pretending that she would not move freely and that she would regularly be controlled concerning sexually transmitted diseases. The tolerance of prostitution confirmed as well the space and role of brothels in the social life of the main Spanish towns.

History, 19th Century↗
PubMed1989

[Seroprevalence of AIDS in Chilean male and female prostitutes. II. Male prostitution].

ELISA test to detect HIV-1 antibodies was performed to 65 homosexuals and homosexual male prostitutes in a Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) Clinic in Santiago de Chile together with a survey about risk factors. It was found that 40 of them (62%) practice prostitution with a rate of 1.5% clients per day. All the studied group presented dissemination of HIV risk factors like low frequency usage of condom, patients hide their homosexual condition, they have donated blood, they do not manifest an attitude towards changing their behaviors and have had intercourse with the opposite sex. We found 1 (1.54%) seropositive confirmed by Western blot in a homosexual who does not practice prostitution.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗