Title: Gender as an obstacle to condom use: implications for HIV-prevention amongst commercial sex workers in a mining community.

POPLINE Document Number: 274084

Author(s):

Campbell C
Mzaidume Y
Williams B

Source citation:

Agenda, 1998;(39):[9] p..

Abstract:

In what ways does gender facilitate HIV transmission, and how can sexual health promoters take account of this in designing and managing HIV-prevention programmes? This profile examines these issues in the context of the Mothusimpilo Project, a recently initiated HIV intervention in Carletonville, a gold mining community of 250 000 people near Johannesburg. As is the case in many parts of Southern Africa, levels of HIV amongst Carletonville residents are high, and condom use with casual partners is low, despite the fact that people are generally well-informed about the causes of HIV and how to prevent its transmission. About 75 000 of the Carletonville residents are male migrant workers who travel from within South Africa and neighbouring countries to work on the gold mines. The majority of these workers are housed in single sex hostels some distance from their families, and within this context a thriving commercial sex industry has sprung up, with large numbers of impoverished women flocking to the mines to make a living selling sex. The gold mines have been praised for the speed at which they implemented HIV prevention programmes for mineworkers, both through condom provision as well as good quality Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) services and information-based health education to all workers. However these programmes have not been as successful as was hoped. While they have succeeded in raising peoples' levels of factual knowledge of the risks of HIV infection, levels of HIV continue to rise, and unprotected sex is still common in casual or commercial sexual encounters. This poses a challenge to those concerned with HIV prevention: if factual knowledge is such a weak determinant of sexual behaviour, what are the other co-determinants, and what are the implications of these for the design of HIV intervention programmes? (excerpt)

Keywords:

South Africa
Research Report
Sex Workers
Workers
HIV Prevention
AIDS Prevention
HIV Transmission
Safer Sex
Sex Behavior
Condom Use
Prevention and Control
Africa, Southern
Africa, Sub Saharan
Africa
Developing Countries
Behavior
Labor Force
Human Resources
Economic Factors
HIV Infections
Viral Diseases
Diseases
AIDS
Risk Reduction Behavior