Female sex workers are 14 times more likely than other women to contract HIV, according to data from a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health study presented at the XIX International AIDS Conference and reported by aidsmap. The study encompassed 102 reports from 50 countries between 2007 and 2011, covering 12,197 sex workers. The researchers projected that community empowerment programs and improved access to antiretroviral therapy would reduce HIV prevalence among sex workers by 33 percent and in the general population by 30 percent. Activists note that poverty, stigma and legal issues—such as condoms being used as evidence of prostitution—make it more difficult for sex workers to take advantage of intervention programs.

To read the aidsmap article, click here.