Sex work, drug use, HIV infection, and spread of sexually transmitted infections in Moscow, Russian Federation.
Rates of HIV-1 infection are growing rapidly, and the epidemic of sexually transmitted infections is continuing at an alarming rate, in the Russian Federation. We did a cross-sectional study of sexually transmitted infections, HIV infection, and drug use in street youth at a juvenile detention facility, adults at homeless detention centres, and women and men at a remand centre in Moscow. 160 (79%) women at the remand centre were sex workers. 91 (51%) homeless women had syphilis. At least one bacterial sexually transmitted infection was present in 97 (58%) female juvenile detainees, 120 (64%) women at the remand centre, and 133 (75%) homeless women. HIV seroprevalence was high in women at the remand centre (n=7 [4%]), adolescent male detainees (5 [3%]), and homeless women (4 [2%]). In view of the interaction between sexually transmitted infections and HIV infection, these findings of high prevalence of sexually transmitted infections show that these disenfranchised populations have the potential to make a disproportionately high contribution to the explosive growth of the HIV epidemic unless interventions targeting these groups are implemented in the Russian Federation.
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA. afs9@cdc.gov
A
A
Shakarishvili
L K
LK
Dubovskaya
L S
LS
Zohrabyan
J S
JS
St Lawrence
S O
SO
Aral
L G
LG
Dugasheva
S A
SA
Okan
J S
JS
Lewis
K A
KA
Parker
C A
CA
Ryan
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission; D015497:HIV-1; D006703:Ill-Housed Persons; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009031:Moscow / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D011330:Prisons; D011477:Sex Work; D012749:Sexually Transmitted Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*