HIV This Week

Leclerc PM, Garenne M. Commercial sex and HIV transmission in mature epidemics: a study of five African countries. Int J STD AIDS. 2008;19(10):660-4.

The study compares the association between using the services of commercial sex workers and male HIV seroprevalence in five African countries: Ghana , Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi and Rwanda. The HIV seroprevalence among men who ‘ever paid for sex’ was compared with controls who ‘never paid for sex’. Results were based on 12,929 eligible men, aged 15-59 years, interviewed in Demographic and Health Surveys. The odds ratio of HIV seroprevalence associated with ever paying for sex was 1.89 (95% confidence interval = 1.57-2.28), with only minor differences by country. The results were stable in multivariate analysis after controlling for available potential cofactors (data on non-sexual routes of transmission were not available). Given the relatively small proportion of men involved, the risk attributable to ‘ever paying for sex’ remained low: 7.1% in univariate analysis and 4.4% after adjustment, and it varied among countries (range 1.3-9.4%). These results match previous observations that commercial sex seems to play a minor role in the spread of HIV in mature epidemics.

Editors’ note: Commercial sex clearly was a main source of HIV transmission in the mid-1980s in sub-Saharan Africa’s heterosexual epidemics, creating an imbalance between the sexes with larger numbers of men infected and dying of AIDS than women. The situation is much changed in the mature HIV epidemics of today, with a balance between the sexes or even more women than men infected and commercial sex playing a minor role in epidemic dynamics. Nevertheless, programmes to reduce HIV transmission between sex workers and their clients in sub-Saharan Africa can still benefit the whole population and should be strengthened.