More with the truck drivers
Truck drivers in India soliciting commercial sex work while on the road are spreading HIV throughout their routes, the AP/Minneapolis Star Tribune reports (Mason, AP/Minneapolis Star Tribune, 11/29). India — where about 5.1 million HIV-positive people live, the second-highest number of any country in the world — has experienced more new HIV cases than the 28,000 cases the government reported in 2004…
Nirmal Khatri, a counselor at Babu Jagjivan Ram Memorial Hospital who informs patients of their HIV test results, said, “[Truck drivers] tell us they have many sex partners at red-light areas and then they have sex with their wives,” adding, “It is a problem — it is a big problem.” Of the “handful” of HIV-positive truck drivers who return to clinics for follow-up visits, some report continuing to solicit sex at truck stops or having sex with their “unsuspecting” wives, who can become pregnant and transmit the virus to their infants, the AP/Star Tribune reports.
Filed under: Epidemiology