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protease inhibitor levels,
with greater potential for coformulation,”
said presenter
Joel Gallant, MD, MPH of
Johns Hopkins University
School of Medicine. He noted
the various co-formulations
of cobicistat with protease
inhibitors that are in development.
Moreover, he pointed
out that, “[Norvir]-boosted
Reyataz is known to be a
lipid-friendly regimen and
cobicistat is no different.”
“This is all good news,”
said session co-facilitator
Christine Katlama, MD, of
Hospitalier Pitie-Salpetriere in
Paris, “because all the drugs
work and when they don’t
work there is no resistance.”
Risky business
for sex workers
Several sessions looked at
abuses that put sex workers
at risk for HIV—and we’re not
talking sex.
Instead, it’s police actions
around the world—including
here in the United States—to
confiscate condoms and
to use them as evidence
of prostitution that puts
sex workers at risk for HIV.
Advocates
said the situation is
such that many sex
workers are afraid
to carry condoms
because of the police
harassment this can
cause. In fact, even
outreach workers
have been followed
by the police so that
sex workers can be
arrested when they
take the condoms
offered. As advocates
pointed out, it is
not illegal to carry
condoms. Rather,
confiscation serves as another
avenue of illegal detention
and intimidation.
Moreover, criminalization
of consensual sex work keeps
workers under dangerous conditions.
In the “Criminalizing
Condoms and Sex Work”
session, Acasia Shields, author
of Criminalizing Condoms, a
report from the Open Society
Foundation, said, “Police
routinely search sex workers
to confiscate and destroy condoms.
This affects their ability
to practice safe sex and they
know it.”
Of the U.S. sex workers
surveyed, 52% said they
were afraid to carry condoms
because of fear of police
harassment. Shields said
other abuses include
threats of arrest to
exhort sex,
and beating
or raping sex
workers.
Discussing
the findings
from the first
national congress
of sex workers in
Bangladesh, Simon
mY BOdY, mY BuSInESS: Discussing sex workers’ issues.
Risen, MD, MPH, PhD, of Save
the Children, said, “Violence
against female sex workers
spreads far beyond individual
incidents and factually is gender-based
violence.” Among
other recommendations, Save
the Children in Bangladesh
says behavioral change campaigns
should be aimed at
changing community perceptions
and creating acceptance
of sex workers in mainstream
society, and that maternal and
child services should focus
more on issues related to sex
workers.
Darby Hickey of the Los
Angeles chapter of SWOP
(Sex Workers Outreach
Project), said, “We think
sometimes that countries like
the United States are a world
apart from countries like
Bangladesh, but unfortunately,
we face the same issues.
It is about law and about
policy change, but also about
how police operate outside
the range of law. So we need
to change policies, holding
police accountable, and
address the wider societal
indifference and downright
hostility.” She said efforts to
“rescue and save” sex workers
should be called “arrest
and abuse.”
In the session titled “The
Oldest Profession: Is Sex
Work Work?,” Naomi Akers
said equating sex work with
human trafficking is insulting
and hurts both sex workers,
who are targeted by raids,
and victims of trafficking,
who aren’t helped at all.
“When you’re doing sex work,
of course you see it as work.
It buys you food and helps
you take care of your family,”
she said, calling trafficking
“horrible.”
Deanna Kerrigan of the
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health in
Baltimore detailed findings
of higher HIV risk among sex
workers around the world, and
said support for sex workers’
groups, as well as human and
health rights is critical for all
sex workers, including men
and transgender people.
Labor rights, the focus of the
session, would help to eliminate
stigma and discrimination
and increase HIV prevention
efforts for this group of workers,
she said. Richard Howard
POSiTivElyAwARE.COM SEPTEMBER+OCTOBER 2012 37