New online tool kit launched on HIV/AIDS prevention for sex workers.

2004 DEC 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The German technical cooperation (GTZ) and the World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with sex-work networks around the world, are launching the first-ever online tool kit aimed at helping sex workers to protect themselves and their clients from infection with HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

The tool kit is intended for use by people working with female, male, and transgender sex workers, including program managers, field workers, and peer educators. This is the first time this expertise has been formally documented and made widely accessible.

"Thanks to this innovative project, people working on HIV/AIDS prevention for sex workers can now learn what does and doesn't work from Poland to Papua New Guinea. Targeted HIV/AIDS prevention and care programs are urgently needed for sex workers, injecting drug users, and other vulnerable groups and we welcome GTZ's leadership and support in this often under funded area," said Jim Yong Kim, WHO's director of HIV/AIDS.

Included in the online sex work tool kit are practical "how to do it" documents like "Hustling for Health" and "Making Sex Work Safe," written by experienced sex-worker groups to support program managers in setting up and maintaining projects.

"Of Veshyas, Vamps, Whores, and Women," for example, is based on experiences from an Indian nongovernmental organization and gives practical advice on how to build up a network of peer educators in brothels and deal with the brothel owners, how to set up condom distribution networks, and how to structure payment incentives for peer educators.

Despite proof that prevention programs work in sex-work settings, currently only 16% of sex workers have access to these services. Around the world, poor services generally mean higher HIV prevalence.

"Sex workers know better than anyone else about the problems they face, the kind of language and programs that work. Only by involving them can both male and female sex workers and clients be motivated to make use of condoms and health clinics," said Friederike Strack of Hydra, one of the sex-worker organizations collaborating on the tool kit.