final program.qxd - Parallels Plesk Panel

PP 1.4
Pradip Timilsena, Laxmi Prasad Wosti & Dewakar Paudayal
Out reach Coordinator, Programme Officer & Programme Manager respectively;
Kathmandu, Nepal
This study establishes a link between poverty, migrant labour & HIV/STIs, in Achham
District, a poor & remote area of Nepal.
Methods
This methodology involved quantitative & qualitative techniques as well as medical
examination & testing (Hepatitis, B. Syphilis, HIV for 316 participants.
Result
Poverty is the main factor for sampled workers to migrate. However, the poverty
differential between migrant & non-migrant is very small, & as a consequence migration is
likely to increase with even slight economic shocks (as the most common coping
strategy). Each family has one migrant member. Migration happens to places of high HIV
incidence (e.g. Delhi, Mumbai & abroad countries). Both migrant & non -migrant
respondents has a low prevalence of HIV (a prevalence of 0.33% among the sampled
population 0 -3.9 % in 95 % ). However, migrants are also high - risk group with high
prevalence of Syphilis & risky sexual behaviour.
Conclusions
The HIV pandemic is only at its starting point in Nepal, but the high migrant rate & the risky
sexual behaviour of the migrants in places of high incidence of HIV can support an
exponential increase. Preventive policy targeting migrants, if properly funded &
implemented, can prove life saving & cost effective.
“ Focusing FIRST on PEOPLE “ 88 w w w . i s h e i d . c o m