title: An action agenda for HIV and sex workers.
abstract: The women, men, and transgender people who sell sex globally have disproportionate risks and burdens of HIV in countries of low, middle, and high income, and in concentrated and generalised epidemic contexts. The greatest HIV burdens continue to be in African female sex workers. Worldwide, sex workers still face reduced access to needed HIV prevention, treatment, and care services. Legal environments, policies, police practices, absence of funding for research and HIV programmes, human rights violations, and stigma and discrimination continue to challenge sex workers' abilities to protect themselves, their families, and their sexual partners from HIV. These realities must change to realise the benefits of advances in HIV prevention and treatment and to achieve global control of the HIV pandemic. Effective combination prevention and treatment approaches are feasible, can be tailored for cultural competence, can be cost-saving, and can help to address the unmet needs of sex workers and their communities in ways that uphold their human rights. To address HIV in sex workers will need sustained community engagement and empowerment, continued research, political will, structural and policy reform, and innovative programmes. But such actions can and must be achieved for sex worker communities everywhere.
authors: Center for Public Health and Human Rights, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA. Electronic address: cbeyrer@jhu.edu.
authors: Chris
authors: C
authors: Beyrer
authors: University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
authors: Anna-Louise
authors: AL
authors: Crago
authors: Desmond Tutu HIV Research Centre, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
authors: Linda-Gail
authors: LG
authors: Bekker
authors: United Nations Population Fund, New York, NY, USA.
authors: Jenny
authors: J
authors: Butler
authors: BC Center for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
authors: Kate
authors: K
authors: Shannon
authors: Center for Public Health and Human Rights, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors: Deanna
authors: D
authors: Kerrigan
authors: Center for Public Health and Human Rights, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors: Michele R
authors: MR
authors: Decker
authors: Center for Public Health and Human Rights, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors: Stefan D
authors: SD
authors: Baral
authors: Center for Public Health and Human Rights, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors: Tonia
authors: T
authors: Poteat
authors: Center for Public Health and Human Rights, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Department of Emergency Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors: Andrea L
authors: AL
authors: Wirtz
authors: Center for Public Health and Human Rights, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors: Brian W
authors: BW
authors: Weir
authors: Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.
authors: Françoise
authors: F
authors: Barré-Sinoussi
authors: UN Special Envoy for HIV in eastern Europe and central Asia, Geneva, Switzerland.
authors: Michel
authors: M
authors: Kazatchkine
authors: UNAIDS, Geneva, Switzerland.
authors: Michel
authors: M
authors: Sidibé
authors: UNAIDS, Geneva, Switzerland.
authors: Karl-Lorenz
authors: KL
authors: Dehne
authors: Imperial College, London, UK.
authors: Marie-Claude
authors: MC
authors: Boily
authors: University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA.
authors: Steffanie A
authors: SA
authors: Strathdee
mesh_terms: D019380:Anti-HIV Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D005260:Female; D014943:Global Health; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006806:Human Rights / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D060386:Sex Workers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D063106:Transgender Persons / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019562:Viral Load
chemical_list: D019380:Anti-HIV Agents