[afro-nets] New Online Tool Kit on HIV/AIDS Prevention for Sex Workers

[Peter Weis <weisp@who.int>]

New Online Tool Kit on HIV/AIDS Prevention for Sex Workers
----------------------------------------------------------
 
http://www.who.int/hiv/toolkit/sw
 
GTZ, WHO and sex work networks share information and lessons 
learned
 
11 November 2004
 
Berlin/Geneva - The German technical cooperation (GTZ) and the 
World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with sex work 
networks around the world, are launching the first ever online 
tool kit aimed at helping sex workers to protect themselves and 
their clients from infection with HIV and other sexually trans-
mitted infections. The tool kit is intended for use by people 
working with female, male and transgender sex workers including 
programme managers, field workers and peer educators. This is 
the first time this expertise has been formally documented and 
made widely accessible.
 
"Thanks to this innovative project, people working on HIV/AIDS 
prevention for sex workers can now learn what does and doesn't 
work from Poland to Papua New Guinea. Targeted HIV/AIDS preven-
tion and care programmes are urgently needed for sex workers, 
injecting drug users and other vulnerable groups and we welcome 
GTZ's leadership and support in this often under funded area," 
said Dr Jim Yong Kim, WHO's Director of HIV/AIDS.
 
Included in the online sex work tool kit are practical "how to 
do it" documents like 'Hustling for Health' and 'Making Sex Work 
Safe', written by experienced sex worker groups to support pro-
gramme managers in setting up and maintaining projects. "Of Ve-
shyas, vamps, whores and women" for example, is based on experi-
ences from an Indian NGO and gives practical advice on how to 
build up a network of peer educators in brothels and deal with 
the brothel owners, how to set up condom distribution networks 
and how to structure payment incentives for peer educators.
 
Despite proof that prevention programmes work in sex work set-
tings, currently only 16% of sex workers have access to these 
services. Around the world, poor services generally mean higher 
HIV prevalence. 
 
"Sex workers know better than anyone else about the problems 
they face, the kind of language and programs that work. Only by 
involving them can both male and female sex workers and clients 
be motivated to make use of condoms and health clinics," said 
Friederike Strack from Hydra - one of the sex worker organiza-
tions collaborating on the tool kit.
 
The tool kit also includes valuable data and analysis which can 
be shared across regions and used to design better HIV/AIDS pre-
vention programmes for sex workers, for example "Police and Sex 
Workers in Papua New Guinea". A report on "Meeting the sexual 
health needs of men who have sex with men in Senegal" gives 
valuable insight into dealing with the cultural sensitivity sur-
rounding men who have sex with men in West Africa, how their 
lives are characterized by violence and rejection and that many 
find it easier to get help and treatment than from clinics than 
traditional healers.
 
WHO and GTZ worked closely with sex work networks and organiza-
tions to produce an online collection of more than 130 easily-
accessible documents, manuals, reports, and research studies. 
The aim of the tool kit is to make vital information about sex 
work interventions more accessible to a wider audience and to 
share lessons learnt to contribute to global efforts to develop 
and increase effective HIV prevention and care interventions 
among and with sex workers.
 
"Targeted programs make a difference - in Germany we have shown 
over the last 15 years that these kinds of interventions can 
really work. It's important to share knowledge across borders 
and within communities to help save lives within one of the old-
est professions in the world. We are pleased to support this 
initiative," said Thomas Kirsch-Woik, Senior Consultant 
HIV/AIDS, GTZ.
 
In many countries, sex workers are frequently exposed to HIV and 
other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Where sex workers 
have poor access to HIV prevention services, HIV prevalence can 
be as high as 60-90%. Evidence shows that targeted prevention 
interventions in sex work settings can turn the epidemic around. 
 
In Thailand and Cambodia for example, condom use rose to over 
80% and HIV and STI's declined dramatically thanks to large 
scale programs targeting sex workers and clients. In Nairobi, 
Kenya, strengthened interventions with sex workers - including 
peer support, condom promotion and STI services - led to falls 
in HIV incidence, from 25-50% to 4% in Nairobi sex workers. 
 
"To really have an impact on the epidemic, it's important for 
services and policies to be made more user-friendly and to be 
adapted to the reality of the sex work as well as to regional 
differences. Injecting drug use and sex work are closely linked 
in Eastern Europe and it is essential to integrate the ser-
vices," said Monica Ciupagea from the Open Society Institute 
Hungary which also collaborated on the tool kit development.
 
The HIV/AIDS Sex work tool kit brings together over a decade's 
worth of research and practical experience on what does and does 
not work to change behaviour and protect sex work and clients 
from HIV AIDS. Now online, it will also be available as CD-ROM 
and hard copy in early 2005. The kit is a living document and 
will continue to be updated as new resources are released. 
 
The Sex Work tool kit is one of a series of online tool kits 
produced by WHO and GTZ and can be found at:
http://www.who.int/hiv/toolkit/sw
 
The Antiretrovrial (ARV) Tool kit: A public health approach for 
scaling up ARV treatment (http://www.who.int/hiv/toolkit/arv) 
and the Tool kit for scaling up HIV Testing and Counselling ser-
vices (http://www.who.int/hiv/toolkit/tc) are also available 
online. 
 
--
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) 
GmbH (German technical cooperation) is an international coopera-
tion enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide op-
erations. It offers viable forward-looking solutions for politi-
cal, economic, ecological and social development in a globalised 
world. GTZ promotes complex reforms and change processes, even 
under difficult conditions. GTZ's aim is to improve people's 
living conditions on a sustainable basis. The German Federal 
Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is its 
major client.
 
--
The World Health Organization aims to help people attain the 
highest possible level of health by providing leadership on nor-
mative issues and technical assistance to its 192 Member States. 
Health is defined as a state of complete physical, mental and 
social well being and not merely the absence of disease or in-
firmity. In 2003, WHO joined UNAIDS in declaring the lack of 
HIV/AIDS treatment to be a global public health emergency and 
jointly launched the "3 by 5" initiative to get 3 million people 
on treatment by 2005. The goal is universal access. To help 
countries achieve this goal, WHO provides normative guidance and 
direct technical support in country.
 
For further information please contact 
Samantha Bolton
Communications Officer, WHO, Geneva
Tel:+41-22-791-1970
Mobile: +41-79-239-2366
mailto:Boltons@who.int