Female sex workers are often considered highly vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections STIs. However, data on STI epidemiology in female sex workers are lacking in Switzerland. Our main goal was to evaluate the prevalence of six STIs human immunodeficiency virus [HIV], hepatitis B, hepatitis C, Chlamydia trachomatis , Neisseria gonorrhoeae and syphilis among local female sex workers in Lausanne.
Female sex workers who worked in street sex venues, massage parlours and brothels were approached for recruitment by a local non-governmental organisation. We enrolled 96 female sex workers. No human immunodeficiency virus HIV infections were newly diagnosed among the participants. Sex work is diverse and occurs in various contexts around the world, but people who engage in sex work tend to bear disproportionately high risks and burdens of sexually transmitted infections STIs due to multiple factors, such as exposure to multiple sex partners, inconsistent condom use, social marginalisation and stigmatisation [1].
Most sex workers are female [2] and it is estimated that female sex workers are 14 times more likely to be living with human immunodeficiency virus HIV than other women of similar reproductive age in the same general population [3], with the highest rates of HIV infection in female sex workers in sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe [4].
However, there is substantial heterogeneity in STI prevalence among female sex workers across and within different regions around the world. This is generally attributed to variations in the methodologies used in studies, but also to social, political, economic, structural and cultural factors [2].
In high-income countries, data on STI prevalence in the female sex worker population are scarce [1, 5β7], and some studies have reported higher prevalences of HIV [8], active hepatitis B [8], Chlamydia trachomatis [9] and human papillomavirus [10, 11] infections among female sex workers compared to other women from the same population.
