PLoS Publishes Free Special Collection on HIV Care and Prevention for Sex Workers

PLoS, publisher of open-access research, has announced a special collection of articles on the health of female sex workers, focusing on delivery and scale-up of HIV care and prevention interventions. UNAIDS and other organizations have recognized sex workers as of the key affected populations in the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The collection is available free online at www.ploscollections.org/achievingHIVimpact.

Evidence shows that HIV programs focused on sex workers -- such as those in Thailand and India -- can be highly effective when implemented at a sufficient scale, but in many other countries funding is inadequate and necessary large-scale responses do not exist.

"With the increased burden of HIV infection, calls are made for a rapid scale-up of combination prevention programs, and HIV care and treatment in order to improve conditions for sex workers and contain the HIV epidemic on a global scale," states a PLoS media advisory announcing the collection.

Research Articles in the Collection include:

• Community Mobilisation and Empowerment Interventions as Part of HIV Prevention for Female Sex Workers in Southern India: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
• Optimal Allocation of Resources in Female Sex Worker Targeted HIV Prevention Interventions: Model Insights from Avahan in South India
• Antiretroviral Therapy among HIV-Infected Female Sex Workers: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Short Title - Antiretroviral Therapy in Female Sex Workers
• Scale-Up, Retention and HIV/STI Prevalence Trends among Female Sex Workers Attending VICITS Clinics in Guatemala
• An Appraisal of Female Sex Work in Nigeria - Implications for Designing and Scaling Up HIV Prevention Programmes
• Positive Impact of Increases in Condom Use among Female Sex Workers and Clients in a Medium HIV Prevalence Epidemic: Modelling Results from Project SIDA1/2/3 in Cotonou, Benin
• The Cost of providing combined prevention and treatment services, including ART, to Female Sex Workers in Burkina Faso
• HIV Risk Perception and Behavior among Sex Workers in Three Major Urban Centers of Mozambique
• Role of a Community-to-Community Learning Strategy in Institutionalization of Community Mobilization of Female Sex Workers in India
• Estimating the Size of the Female Sex Worker Population in Kenya to Inform HIV Prevention Programming
• Abriendo Puertas: Baseline Findings from an Integrated Intervention to Promote Prevention, Treatment and Care among FSW Living with HIV in the Dominican Republic
• Epidemic impacts of a community empowerment intervention for HIV prevention among female sex workers in generalized and concentrated epidemics
• Impact of High-Risk Sex and Focused Interventions in Heterosexual HIV Epidemics: A Systematic Review of Mathematical Models

12/1/14

Source

PLoS. Focus on Delivery and Scale: Achieving HIV Impact with Sex Workers. December 1, 2014.