Before you start thinking power chords and "Pictures of Lily," we're not talking about a certain g-g-g-generation's rock ‘n’ roll rebels, we're talking about the World Health Organization, which plans to use cyberspace to help prostitutes fight the HIV virus and AIDS.
The WHO has launched a computer-based information campaign saying prostitutes are at high HIV risk and have low treatment access and, once infected, are likely to pass the virus to clients, thus spreading the virus and the likelihood of full-blown AIDS.
The agency has joined with the German Technical Cooperation aid agency and various prostitutes' groups to develop what's called a Sex Work Toolkit, according to several reports, now posted online and due to come forth in CD-ROM format early in 2005 to be distributed to "prostitute networks," the WHO said.
This kit includes 130 documents, manuals, reports, and studies gathering a decade worth of research on HIV prevention and what does or doesn't work, the WHO said. "This tool kit is not just a scientific study for government ministries, but also has a lot of material by sex workers for sex workers," WHO senior HIV adviser Dr. Isabel de Zoysa told reporters.
Other studies have suggested that a lack of condom availability and poor health services have combined in several areas to create an AIDS rate as high as 90 percent in the sex work industry, but when programs introduced condoms to commercial sex in places like Thailand and Kenya the AIDS rate fell as far as 95 percent.
