title: Opportunities for woman-initiated HIV prevention methods among female sex workers in southern China.
abstract: Rapid changes in China over the past two decades have led to significant problems associated with population migration and changing social attitudes, including a growing sex industry and concurrent increases in STIs and HIV. This article reports results of an exploratory study of microbicide acceptability and readiness and current HIV prevention efforts among female sex workers in two rural and one urban town in Hainan and Guangxi Provinces in southern China. The study focused on these women's knowledge and cultural understandings of options for protecting themselves from exposure to STIs and HIV, and the potential viability and acceptability of woman-initiated prevention methods. We report on ethnographic elicitation interviews conducted with women working within informal sex-work establishments (hotels, massage and beauty parlors, roadside restaurants, boarding houses). We discuss implications of these findings for further promotion of woman-initiated prevention methods such as microbicides and female condoms among female sex workers in China.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Community Research, 2 Hartford Square West, Suite 100, Hartford, CT 06106, USA. mweeks@icrweb.org
authors.forename: Margaret R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Weeks
authors.forename: Maryann
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abbott
authors.forename: Susu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.forename: Wang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Yuejiang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Liu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Jingmei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002681:China; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D011203:Poverty; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012424:Rural Population; D021841:Safe Sex / Q000523:psychology*; D011477:Sex Work / Q000523:psychology*; D012749:Sexually Transmitted Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control; D012931:Social Environment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D047568:Unsafe Sex / Q000523:psychology; D016387:Women's Health