[AIDS counseling in social welfare for prostitutes in the rural area]

Prostitute welfare and AIDS counselling are in the hands of one person in the rural area of the Westerland district. This offers the opportunity of continuously preventing this disease and giving guidance and the "human touch" in close care in case of a possible infection, especially in view of the lower number of cases examined and advised compared with the figures in the big cities. An anonymous poll among 41 prostitutes shows that they approve of and are satisfied with the concept of the "G-welfare". It also shows that the prostitutes themselves are hardly aware of the HIV-risk, that their customers only rarely accept condoms and that there are problems in the use and the toleration of condoms. These difficulties are the main aspects of the preventive work, as well as the psycho-social care and the personal relationship to those examining.