Cellphones Threatening Targeted HIV Prevention Messages Among Sex Workers in India

"Cellphones, those tiny gateways to modernity, have recently allowed prostitutes [in India] to shed the shackles of brothel madams and strike out on their own," the New York Times reports, adding, "But that independence has made prostitutes far harder for government and safe-sex counselors to trace. And without the advice and free condoms those counselors provide, prostitutes and their customers are returning to dangerous ways." According to studies, "prostitutes who rely on cellphones are more susceptible to HIV because they are far less likely than their brothel-based peers to require their clients to wear condoms," the newspaper writes. The New York Times says a government program that provided condom advocacy posters in an area traditionally known for its concentration of brothels worked, "[b]ut now that mobile phones are untethering prostitution from brothels, those targeted measures are threatened" (Harris, 11/24).

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