Sexual behaviours and the spread of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV

Using data from a survey in rural China, this study analyzes commercial sex experiences and condom use behaviors among involuntary male bachelors in comparison to married men. Our findings indicate that the prevalence of commercial sex among unmarried men is significantly higher than that among married, and marital status being almost the only significant variable for predicting the prevalence of commercial sex. It also appears that, while the vast majority of sexual intercourses are still unprotected, condom use rate is even lower among unmarried men than among the married, and it is strongly associated with the knowledge of Sexually Transmitted Diseases’ (STDs), age, education and income. This means that in a context of male marriage squeeze, commercial sex is becoming one of the important ways for the involuntary bachelors to meet their sexual needs and they are obviously facing much higher risks of disease transmission during their sexual intercourses.

Background: HIV prevalence among transgender people (TG) in Thailand is around 10% in 2010. The National AIDS Strategy places MSM and TG in the same category for programming, yet they are very different in terms of needs and risk behaviors. Many data sources do not disaggregate between them and less effort for TG since their prevalence is less. Having exclusive data for TG will help encourage policy makers and program implementers to better prioritize and design policies and programs.

Methods: The data is drawn from the client behavioral monitoring database of the Thai National MSM program. It was collected by outreach workers in 30 provinces from mid-2010 to mid-2011. They were completed after reaching out to clients.

Results: In the one-year period, data was collected on 47,760 clients who were eligible for the study; 10,669 cases (22.3 %) are transgender. TG significantly use condoms less than MSM with both regular (76%/78%) and casual partners (90%/91%) and have less access to VCT (8%/9%) and STIs (5%/7%) services.

Conclusions: Risk and health seeking behaviors of TG and MSM are different. TG programs should be specifically designed to respond to their needs and risk behaviors. TG peer educators should receive more opportunities for capacity building to help maximize the effectiveness of the intervention programs.

Traditional Medicine (TM) has responded to healthcare-delivery needs of Africans for decades. However TM means different-things-to-different people. Equally, TM as sexual remedy has received limited attention. Therefore, this study examined TM as paradigm shift in promotion of sexual medicine in sub-Saharan Africa.
The study adopted quantitative/qualitative data collection methods, and was descriptive and cross-sectional in design comprising 800 respondents. The FGDs and questionnaires data were analysed thematically and statistically respectively.
A total of 20.5% of participants under herbal addiction used TM to prevent infection during sex. Few (3.0%) used herbs and concoction (6.3%) to increase sexual performance. Moreover, (1.5%) suggested that herbal concoction could improve sexual health. Most (60.3%) postulated visiting traditional healers herbal use (10.3%) and drug-taken (17.3%) would provide prevention/treatment against STDs. FGD participants unanimously believed in TM efficacy than contraceptive-use. Hence Magun could prevent diseases while Ale enhances ejaculation and sperm-production Aseje boost sexual-performance. Most African people used traditional herbs to enhance sexual performance
There is need to support clinical investigation of TM especially the claims in relation to sexual health improvement

HIV/AIDS had started to spread from high-risk groups to general population and from urban to rural areas through migrants. Objectives are to investigate sexual behaviors and risks of HIV infection. Study was conducted one of high HIV prevalence state of India during 2009. By simple random method, 609 respondents were selected from 20 PSUs who made more than two moves during last three years. Odds ratio with 95% confidence interval were computed to assess risk association. Indian Council of Social Science Research had given financial support. Sexual activity was widespread among hotel migrant workers, irrespective of their marital status. Mean age at first sexual experience was 23.49 years. One-third had sexual contact with FSWs in past 12 months and fifty percent had sexual relationship with Non-FSWs. Unmarried migrants started their sexual actions with FSWs/Non-FSWs at less than 19 years. Condom usage was high with FSWs (68.3 percent) than with Non-FSWs (20 percent). It indicates migrants’ perception of chance of getting HIV/AIDS varies according to their partners. Overall, 30 percent of migrants suffered by any one sexual health/STIs related symptoms. Degree of mobility has extreme positive relation with incidence of STIs among clients of FSWs/Non-FSWs and risk of getting HIV will be more.