HIV cases among sex workers on the rise in the Karnataka State

[Guest guest]

HIV cases among sex workers on the rise in State

Prevalence among women sex workers, which fell from 14.4 p.c. in 2003 to 5.3

p.c. in 2007, rose to 14.19 p.c. in 2008

Bangalore: Contradicting the United Nations report on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) for

2010, which says that the disease is on the decline among sex workers in

Karnataka, statistics available locally indicate that the disease in that group

is on the ascendance.

Figures culled by the Karnataka AIDS Prevention Society (KSAPS) reveal that

there has been an alarming jump in infection among high-risk groups such as sex

workers.

Surveillance figures provided by the KSAPS to The Hindu on the eve of World AIDS

Day show that the prevalence rate among women in sex work, which fell from 14.4

per cent in 2003 to 5.3 per cent in 2007, saw an increase to 14.19 per cent in

2008.

In 2009, the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) did

not conduct the HIV Sentinel Surveillance (HSS) in the entire country

because of “logistical problems”.

NACO Programme Officer (Surveillance) Yujwal Raj, who confirmed this to The

Hindu on Tuesday, said surveillance could not be conducted because there was a

delay in getting consumables such as filter paper cards (for blood collection)

and desiccant packs (drying material) from the U.S. “But that does not really

affect us much as we have started the HSS for 2010,” he said.

KSAPS Project Director R.R. Jannu said the surveillance could not be carried out

as NACO took a decision against it. “HIV is not a disease whose prevalence can

suddenly fall or increase. It does not make much difference if the survey is not

done for one year,” he said.

Statistics

According to KSAPS figures, prevalence among people who visited clinics for

sexually transmitted diseases fell from 13.39 per cent in 2003 to 7.15 per cent

in 2007. But this increased to 10.97 per cent in 2008.

Unlike in the neighbouring States, the prevalence among men having sex with men

(MSM) in Karnataka has come down from 17.6 per cent in 2007 to 12.62 per cent in

2008. However, the prevalence among injected drug users (IDU) has remained at 2

per cent.

Among women who visited the antenatal centres, the prevalence rate, which had

come down from 1.98 in 2002 to 0.86 in 2007, rose to 0.89 in 2008.

According to statistics, Bagalkot district has acquired the dubious

distinction of having the third highest prevalence of HIV in the country after

Kadapa and Guntur in Andhra Pradesh.

With a prevalence rate of 2.2 per cent, Bagalkot stands first in the State for

high HIV prevalence.

The district, which had the privilege of starting the HIV programme as early as

in 1998 as part of the Indo-Canadian HIV/AIDS Project (ICHAP), saw several

programmes taken up by NACO, the Karnataka Health Promotion Trust (KHPT) and the

KSAPS.

“It is unfortunate to see the prevalence going up again in a district which

received so much funding and services,” official sources said.

However, the State is doing well in terms of Antiretroviral Therapy (ART), which

is a multi-drug regimen to contain the viral load.

Saroja Puthran, president of the Karnataka Network for People Living with HIV,

who has been living with HIV for 12 years without ART, said, “ART is not a cure.

But it dramatically increases the health of a person and prolongs the lifespan.

“With ART, people with HIV can even live for 15 to 20 years,” she said.

<http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2010120165450100.h

tm & date=2010/12/01/ & prd=th & >

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2010120165450100.ht

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Forwarded by:

---------------------------

Yours in Global Concern,

A.SANKAR

Executive Director- EMPOWER - Professional Civil Society Organisation

Vice Chairman -Initiatives of Health Net (IHN)

Founder and General Secretary - Confederation of Indian Civil Society

Organisation’s (CICSO)

National Convener- National Alliance for Health, Environment and Rights (NAFHER)

107J / 133E, puram

TUTICORIN-628 008, TN, INDIA

Telefax: 91 461 2310151; Mobile: 91 94431 48599: www.empowerindia.org

[Guest guest]

Re: /message/12308

This report from the Hindu newspaper provides misleading and incorrect

information.

The " alarming jump " reported in HIV prevalence among female sex workers (FSWs)

in Karnataka between 2007 and 2008 (5.3% to 14.4%) was in large part an artifact

of two new surveillance sites being added in 2008 to the Health Sentinel

Surveillance (HSS) program.

These were both in northern Karnataka, where HIV prevalence among FSWs was much

higher than in the four sites sampled in 2007, which were all in either

Bangalore or Mangalore. Furthermore, in another research study involving over

2,000 FSWs in five districts in Karnataka between 2004 and 2009, HIV prevalence

declined from 20% to 16% (Ramesh BM et al, " Changes in risk behaviours and STI

prevalence following HIV preventive interventions among female sex workers in

five districts in Karnataka state, south India " . Sex Transm Inf 2010; 86 (Suppl

1):i17-24).

The article also comments on the high HIV prevalence rate of 2.2% in Bagalkot

district in northern Karnataka in 2008, among antenatal clinic (ANC) attenders

(HSS data).

However, the HIV prevalence among ANC attenders in 2009 was 1.35% (district-wide

PPTCT data), and in any event, there has been a clear decline in prevalence from

over 3% in 2003 (HSS data).

In addition, there has been a decline in HIV prevalence in the general

population in Bagalkot district between 2003 and 2009: overall, from 3.2% to

2.6%; and among young persons (under age 25) from 2.4% to 1.3% (Karnataka Health

Promotion Trust, General Population Surveys, 2003-2009). So HIV prevalence in

Bagalkot district is declining, not increasing, as the article suggests.

Fortunately, large numbers of HIV positive persons in Bagalkot are now on

anti-retroviral therapy, so will be living longer; HIV prevalence will therefore

start to decline more slowly.

Dr. Moses

University of Manitoba

e-mail: <smoses@...>

[Guest guest]

Dear Colleagues,

Re: /message/12308

In 2005 we sat in on a meeting with about 50 sex workers from Karnataka. The sex

workers with whom we met had been organized and brought together in large part

to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

However, it was clear from our meeting that the donors, NGOs, and government

agencies that work with them had let them down. Specifically, the sex workers

told us that they stand in line for tattoos at annual festivals to honor the

goddess Yellama. They told us that they thought the virus dies in seconds

outside the body, so that taking a tattoo with reused needles and contaminated

ink was not a risk for HIV. Whoever was telling them this has been killing them.

 

Also in 2005, we met with a former manager of an STD treatment clinic in Mumbai

-- who said that it is important to change the needle, but not the syringe when

giving injections. This man -- through his ignorance -- may well have been

responsible for infecting thousands of sex workers with HIV.

Due to their marginalised status and inability to negotiate safe health care,

sex workers were also victims of hospitals who reused tubings and needles for

the saline drips that they routinely prescribed to combat 'weakness'. 

If HIV is on the rise among sex workers in Karnataka it's time to challenge

those who get paid to address this issue to answer some questions: Do you warn

your sex-worker clients that HIV lives outside the body for hours to days, and

that blood-to-blood contacts -- such as tattooing with unsterilized needles --

are more dangerous than unprotected sex?

 

Do you warn them to insist on a new needle AND SYRINGE for every injection? Do

medical staff under your supervision use new needles, syringes, and gloves for

each woman?

Why are sex workers who are not IDUs at such high risk for HIV in India, but not

in China, Vietnam, the US and Europe? In those countries and regions, sex

workers who are not IDUs seldom get HIV. What is different about India -- is the

sex different, or is it unsafe STD treatment and tattooing?

Time to get serious, and not just indulge sexual fantasies and age-old

stigmatizing attitudes about dangerous, diseased sex workers. 

Gisselquist, Mariette Correa

Gisselquist

e-mail: <david_gisselquist@...>