By Mike Frick
A new study by researchers at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases examines the burden of HIV among female sex workers in 50 low- and middle-income countries. This is the first systematic review of HIV risk among female sex workers globally. The authors find that female sex workers in China face a 50-times increased odds of HIV infection compared to all Chinese women of reproductive age. This increased risk is slightly lower than the risk faced by female sex workers in India, but much higher than the increased odds of HIV infection among sex workers in Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia and Vietnam.
近日，约翰霍普斯金大学公共卫生学院研究人员在《柳叶刀传染病》杂志 (The Lancet Infectious Diseases)上发表最新研究，研究调查了在世界50个低、中等收入国家，艾滋病毒给女性性工作者中艾滋病感染的情况。这是第一份全球性的针对女性性工作者所面临的艾滋病风险的系统性综述研究。作者指出，在中国，与其他育龄女性相比，女性性工作者感染艾滋病毒的风险按50倍的几率增长。这一数值只稍稍低于印度女性性工作者面临的艾滋病毒感染率，但却远远高于泰国、柬埔寨、印度尼西亚和越南。
Although a somewhat technical term, the odds ratios reported by the study answer the question: how much more likely is a female sex worker to have HIV than Chinese women overall? The fact that the increased odds are so high demonstrates that female sex workers in China face a much higher risk of HIV than Chinese women generally. In fact, the authors show that 20 percent of cases of HIV transmission among women in China are attributable to sex work. They estimate HIV prevalence to be three percent among Chinese female sex workers but only 0.06 percent among all Chinese women of reproductive age. These findings support what many of our Chinese partners tell us – that social marginalization places these women at undue risk of HIV by isolating female sex workers from the public health system and HIV prevention services.
尽管”比值”（odds ratios）属于一个专业流行病学名词，但这份研究所显示的比值比却回答了这一问题：”女性性工作感染艾滋病的几率比一般的中国女性高多少？”这个比值很高说明中国的女性性工作者感染艾滋病毒的风险远远大于一般的女性。事实上，作者指出在中国，20%女性艾滋病毒感染源于性工作。据作者估计，中国女性性工作者艾滋病患病率为3.0%，而其他育龄中国女性患病率仅0.06%。这些研究结果印证了我们的中国合作伙伴所言–社会边缘化导致女性性工作者无法进入公共卫生系统、无法获得艾滋病预防服务，这使得她们承受了不应有的高艾滋病毒感染风险。
Mike Frick is a China Program Officer at Asia Catalyst.
