Sex Workers

Commercial sex workers are often marginalized from society because of the perception that their choice of profession lacks moral and social sanction. The process of stigmatization and marginalization causes commercial sex workers to have limited access to civil society resources such as education, legal rights, and health care. Compared with the general population, the HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevalence rates are frequently higher among commercial sex worker populations. Commercial sex workers can serve as conduits of HIV/STI propagation due to multiple and concurrent sexual partnerships, particularly when condom use is low. Consequently, HIV/STI awareness and prevention programs are often directed toward commercial sex workers and employ unique strategies to target a historically marginalized high-risk population. In the past two decades there has been ...