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| United Nations-backed research suggests that criminalizing any aspect of prostitution puts workers in the sex trade at greater risk of contracting or spreading HIV, delegates at the International AIDS Conference in Melbourne have heard. (Shutterstock) |
As HIV scientists, advocates and patients gather at the International AIDS Conference in Melbourne this week, there is an increasing focus on the role that the criminalization of sex work is playing in the worldwide epidemic.
Experts say laws that prohibit prostitution are hampering efforts to control the global HIV epidemic.
During the opening session of the conference, the executive director of the joint United Nations program on HIV/AIDS, Michel Sidibé, chided governments for criminalizing sex work.
"We cannot run away from the harm caused by criminalizing populations," Sidibé said. "We must implement the recommendations of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law."
That UN-convened commission found that making any part of prostitution illegal, whether it be the buying or selling of sex, makes workers less able to protect themselves from infections or seek treatment if they become infected.
It's a conclusion supported by a large body of research evidence, including now a series of seven papers on HIV and sex workers published this week by the medical journal Lancet.
One of the articles analyzed published studies on HIV rates among sex workers, condom use and other data from three cities — in India, Kenya and Vancouver.
Author Steffanie Strathdee of the University of California, San Diego said it's clear sexual violence against female prostitutes and the criminalization of their work make them less likely to use condoms.
Eliminating sexual violence would avert an estimated 17 per cent of infections in Kenya and 20 per cent in Canada by creating safer working conditions in which sex workers could demand clients use condoms, she said.
But her team showed that decriminalizing sex work would have a far bigger impact in reducing transmission.
"We've shown that up to 46 per cent of incident HIV infections could be averted in any of the three cities we examined by just fully decriminalizing prostitution," she said.
