A study on female sex workers in southern China (Shenzhen): HIV-related knowledge, condom use and STD history

The present study aims to investigate the perspective relations between HIV/AIDS and condom-related knowledge, condom use, history of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and predictive factors of condom use by female sex workers (FSW) who were sent to the Women Re-education Center (WRC) in Shenzhen, People's Republic of China. Seven hundred and one FSW were interviewed. Whereas respondents had attained certain accurate knowledge about the HIV transmission routes, misconceptions were still commonly reported. Level of condom related knowledge was not high. The prevalence of using condoms with clients was relatively low-15%- 22% reported not using condoms consistently. One of the major obstacles was 'Refusal by clients'. Significant predictive factors associated with consistency of condom use with clients were age, educational background, average number of client intakes per day, capacity in determining the use of condoms and past STD history. The respondents may have developed a false sense of safety by subjectively assessing whether their clients had a STD but they were unaware that HIV carriers may show no obvious symptoms at all. The data has confirmed the worries regarding the potential 'bridging effect' of HIV transmission as resulted by cross-border commercial sex-networking activities.