Lagos — Commerical sex workers believe God, not safer sex, can save them from HIV/AIDS as they carry on with little or no protection - new studies reveal

They know that their religion - whether Christianity or Islam - frown at adultery or fornication. But Nigerian commercial sex workers still hold strong belief that only God - not condom or total withdrawal from the sex trade - could protect them against the deadly HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases which are the main risk associated with their profession.

Some even hold daily devotion during which they seek divine protection against the deadly diseases as each CSW takes on an average of four men per day. Many of them will however not bother about self protection through the use of condom.

These are some of the amazing findings of three new studies conducted by a non-governmental organisation (NGO), the Society For Family Health (SFH).

The findings of the studies released last Thursday in Abuja at a one-day workshop organised by SFH in collaboration with the National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA) revealed that more women are being driven into commercial sex work as a result of poverty brought about by fewer economic opportunities.

Majority of the respondents were in their twenties while 11 % were adolescents between the age of 12 years and 19 years. About 60% of the respondents had been married but almost all of them were either divorced or widowed.

According to the surveys over 60% of the respondents cited financial gain as their main reason for going into sex work.

And the trade appears to be paying off. The findings of the studies put the mean monthly income of a CSW at N15,000!

However just as the money seems to be rolling in, the CSWs are also daily faced with a high risk of sexually transmitted infections, violence, unplanned pregnancies and abortion.

Unfortunately, the studies showed that while most of the CSWs are aware of the deadly risk involved in their trade, most of them are yet to adopt the practice of safer sex through the use of condom. According to the studies, only 55% of respondents claimed to have used the condom consistently in the last one week before the survey.

However the researchers noted that the claim could even be an exaggeration as the focus group discussion was to reveal that the consistent use of condom was restricted to only the casual partners.

"Condom use was not considered necessary with trusted lovers and boyfriends , according to one of the studies.

After an extensive review of the findings of the new studies, participants at the workshop concluded that the issue of HIV/AIDS is not only a health issue but socio-economic and developmental as well. They noted that commercial sex work is largely driven by poverty adding that female sex workers exist because there is a large demand by over 280,000 men who visit sex workers daily.

Realising that commercial sex work remains a major route of HIV/AIDS transmission, the participants recommended that key stakeholders - sex workers and their customers, brothels proprietors and their managers, law enforcement agents, religious organisations and parents - should be educated on the social and health implications of commercial sex, and their role in addressing the associated problems.

They urged that priority attention should be given to education of the girl child while the CSWs should be given access to medical care through organised structure of CSWs with assistance from non-governmental organisations and community-based organisations.

They recommended that CSWs should be involved in programme planning and implementation of intervention programmes.