'Legal prostitution will help'

2007-03-18 17:39

Msimelelo Njwabane

Johannesburg - A plan to legalise prostitution forms part of the recommendations of the new HIV/Aids plan to ensure that new HIV infections are reduced by 50% by 2011.

The new plan was launched this week. It has identified the criminalisation of sex workers as a hindrance to the curbing of the pandemic.

The plan revealed that "a number of high risk groups, like sex workers, continue to face legal barriers in gaining access to HIV-prevention and treatment services because of the criminalisation of their activity".

The plan recommends that the laws criminalising prostitution should be amended to "ensure non-discrimination and harm-reduction in sex workers".

Large sections being excluded

Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (Sweat) researcher Nicolé Sick has welcomed the recommendations.

"It is incredibly hard to combat the scourge of HIV/Aids among sex workers under present laws.

"Decriminalising prostitution and legalising it will move it from the underground, where it leaves sex workers more vulnerable," said Sick.

"As long as the sex work industry remains illegal and operates as a largely underground activity, large sections are not being accessed nor have access to non-judgmental health services.

"It is the criminalisation of sex work that is a threat to public health," said Sick.

The plan has been hailed by health and social care stakeholders at the two-day national consultative forum in Boksburg on the East Rand.

The national treasury has already committed R14bn to kickstart the plan.

However, the plan does raise concerns about the affordability and sustainabilty of the programmes.

To bring down costs, the plan suggests that primary health-care nurses, not doctors, should be used to put patients on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment.

Inputs 'will be incorporated'

Lay counsellors, not nurses, should conduct HIV tests without compromising the quality of the services, it was suggested.

This has been proposed as a cost-effective and safe method of expanding the ARV programme.

The plan aims to provide ARVs to 80% of HIV-positive people who need treatment.

Sibani Mngadi, spokesperson for the department of health, said: "These inputs will be incorporated into the final plan that will be adopted by the new South African National Aids Council."

- City Press