Condom-shy men cited as the main HIV spreaders
Thursday February 10 2022
Surveys done in 35 African countries show that 32 percent of men who paid for sex shunned condom use in their most recent encounter. PHOTO | FILE | NMG
Men who buy sexual services in sub-Saharan Africa should use condoms for they are a priority population for HIV spread, warn scientists.
Analysis of surveys done in 35 African countries show that 32 percent of men who paid for sex shunned condom use in their most recent encounter. Now scientists want men who pay for sex to be recognised as a priority population for HIV prevention, as much as the sex workers.
Twenty years’ worth of surveys suggest that nearly one in 10 sexually active men in these countries has been a client of sex workers, and these men are about 50 percent more likely to be living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
Among men who reported they paid sex in the past year, 62.2 percent used a condom, with the highest proportion in southern Africa, at 76.6 percent and lowest proportion in eastern Africa, at 55.2 percent.
Findings from the study published on January 25, in the PLOS Medicine, suggest HIV prevalence was higher among men who paid for sex as compared to those who did not.
Priority population
Results from the survey including more than 368,000 participants suggest that men who pay for sex constitute a distinct population subgroup at high risk of HIV acquisition and transmission, but one that has been ignored for far too long.
“Clients of sex workers are not designated, nor recognised, as a key population by UNAids, in part because of their lack of perceived structural vulnerabilities... and be recognised as a priority population for HIV prevention,” says the report.
“Without increased HIV prevention efforts among clients of sex workers, including improved access to HIV testing and condom use initiatives, female sex workers and their clients will continue to be at risk of HIV acquisition,” warn the researchers.
They say to better understand the dynamics of HIV in transactional sex and identify new opportunities for prevention, future research could help confirm and expand on these findings, such as by improving confidentiality of surveys and collecting more data on the use of HIV treatment.