Understanding the dynamic nature of sex work is important for explaining the course of HIV epidemics. While health and development interventions targeting sex workers may alter the dynamics of the sex trade in particular localities, little has been done to explore how large-scale social and structural changes, such as economic recessions-outside of the bounds of organizational intervention-may ...

The term ‘sex worker’ refers to a wide array of people who sell sex and money who work in a variety of environments. They include women men and transgender people and people who many work either full time or part time, in brothels or bars, on the street or from. Sex workers usually have a high number of sexual partners. This means that if they do become infected that if they do become infected ...

In a seminal paper, Lena Edlund and Evelyn Korn (2002) introduce a puzzling stylized fact— that prostitution is “low-skilled, labor intensive, female, and well paid’’—and offer a provocative explanation: sex workers draw a compensating differential due to the foregone opportunity to “sell’’ their fertility in the marriage market. In so doing, they not only provide the first formal model of occu...

BACKGROUND Swaziland has the highest HIV prevalence in the world - 32% of adults are currently living with HIV - and many Swazis are chronically food insecure - in 2011 one in four Swazis required food aid from the World Food Programme. In southern Africa, food insecurity has been linked to high-risk sexual behaviors, difficulty with antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence, higher rates of mothe...

High rates of violence among street-level sex workers have been described across the globe, while in cities across Canada the disappearance and victimization of drug-using women in survival sex work is ongoing. Given the pervasive levels of violence faced by sex workers over the last decades, and extensive harm reduction and HIV prevention efforts operating in Vancouver, Canada, this research a...

Unprotected anal sex has long been recognized as a risk factor for HIV transmission among men who have sex with men (MSM). In Africa, however, general denial of MSM existence and associated stigma discouraged research. To address this gap in the literature, partners conducted the first behavioral surveys of MSM in Kenya. The first study was to assess HIV risk among MSM in Nairobi, and the secon...

HIV prevention is an especially salient issue for women, given the ongoing feminization of the epidemic. Female sex workers are especially vulnerable to HIV infection, particularly those who are drug-using and engage in street-based sex exchange. This paper examines risk behaviors and HIV serostatus of 806 drug-using women sex workers in Miami, Florida, and assesses the relative impact of two H...

Ureaplasma urealyticum is a causative agent of non-gonococcal urethritis and is implicated in the pathogenesis of several other diseases. However, U. urealyticum is also frequently found in the normal genitourinary tract. To characterize the distribution pattern of biovars and genotypes in normal physical check-up women and in sex workers, cervical swabs taken from 261 physical check-up clients...