Human immunodeficiency virus prevalence and high-risk behavior of home-based and nonhome-based female sex workers in three high-prevalent North-Eastern States of India

Subrata Biswas; Abhik Sinha; Shobini Rajan; Pankaj Kumar Khan; Deepika S Joshi; Malay Kumar Saha

doi:10.4103/ijph.IJPH_100_20

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Year : 2020 | Volume : 64 | Issue : 5 | Page : 46-52

Human immunodeficiency virus prevalence and high-risk behavior of home-based and nonhome-based female sex workers in three high-prevalent North-Eastern States of India

Subrata Biswas¹, Abhik Sinha², Shobini Rajan³, Pankaj Kumar Khan⁴, Deepika S Joshi⁵, Malay Kumar Saha⁶
¹ Project Coordinator, ICMR-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
² Scientist C, ICMR-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
³ Assistant Director General-Strategic Information, National AIDS Control Organization, New Delhi, India
⁴ Data Manager, ICMR-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
⁵ Commonwealth Scholar, University of Edinburgh, College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, UK
⁶ Scientist F, ICMR-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

Correspondence Address:
Dr. Malay Kumar Saha
ICMR-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, P-33, C I T Road, Scheme-XM, Beliaghata, Kolkata - 700 010, West Bengal
India

Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None

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DOI: 10.4103/ijph.IJPH_100_20

Background: Female sex workers (FSWs) have been identified as an important target group for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/sexually transmitted infections prevention. Objectives: This study aimed to describe sociodemographic and sex work characteristics and to identify the risk factors for HIV infection with special focus on the variations between home-based (HB) and non-HB (NHB) FSWs in three high-prevalent North-Eastern states of India: Manipur, Mizoram, and Nagaland. Methods: Data from the National Integrated Bio-Behavioural Surveillance (IBBS) conducted in India during 2014–2015 were utilized in the study. IBBS is a quantitative survey conducted among identified high risk sub within India. Logistic regression analyses were performed using SAS 9.3.2 to determine the distribution and associations of sociodemographics and risk behaviors with HIV seropositivity of HB and NHB FSWs. Results: HIV prevalence was found higher among NHB FSWs compared to HB FSW (7.3% vs. 4.6%). The proportions of FSW among HB (66.7%) were in sex work for longer duration are significantly higher than for NHB (60.2%) while risk of HIV infection due to injecting drug use was higher in NHB FSW (11.7% vs. 8.7%). Reference to FSW who were currently married, those who were widowed/divorced/separated had 2.73-fold risk of HIV. FSW who did not have any other income source were associated with 1.73 times more risk of HIV infection. Injecting drugs user among FSW respondents had four times higher likelihood to be HIV positive. Conclusion: A substantial proportion of NHB FSWs is mobile in nature. Targeted interventions are required urgently to minimize HIV risk among those FSWs especially the widowed/divorced/separated, sex work is only income source and who used injecting drugs for nonmedical purpose.

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