Is an AIDS-free generation on the horizon? Not without the help of sex workers and other marginalized “key populations,” public health officials say.
The world needs more prostitutes like Hawa Abdallah. At least that’s what many public health officials believe.
There’s something about the 25-year-old — the harsh angle of her eyebrows, the way her red lipstick contrasts with the dirty walls, the cold stare she directs at passing men — that says she’s in control. Abdallah has sex with as many as 20 men every day in a brothel in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s largest city, where 1 in 20 residents and 1 in 3 sex workers are infected with the virus that causes AIDS.
But a series of simple steps have kept Abdallah healthy until now: She knows how HIV spreads. She is tested regularly. And she’s confident enough to insist that her customers use condoms every time. Just as importantly, she’s managed to avoid the assault, arbitrary arrest and extortion that plague the profession. Health officials say that unless more prostitutes start fitting a similar profile, the world doesn’t stand a chance at beating back the virus.
Jason Kane
PBS News Hour
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