Netherlands Antilles. E-mail: faas1 attglobal. This is what is referred to as "the sexual network theory": people are connected by their sexual contacts, and therefore form contact-patterns of sexual networks. The study indicated wide spread acceptability of this barrier method by all the female populations in the project, as an effective instrument in the fight against HIV and other sexual transmitted diseases.
Inflation and devaluation have caused companies to lay off employees, and as a result, more women are being forced to turn to prostitution as a means of earning a living, especially when educational opportunity is low and alternative employment scarce 1.
This phenomenon is corroborated by the fact that in , the Ministry of Health registered a total of In , this number had almost doubled to There are strong indications that there is under- registration of women working in prostitution and that the actual numbers for Caracas might be On a national level, the total number is estimated to hover between In addition, some One of the first studies which quantified the percentage of men who make use of the services of sex workers is the much quoted American pioneer study on human sexuality "Sexual behavior in the human male" 4.
However, the majority of AIDS cases among women in Venezuela are diagnosed in the group of housewives, and young female professionals. Indeed, this pattern of infection affirms the sexual network theory noted above 6. This would indicate that some 2,, women have AIDS, of which are sex workers. The Ministry has also stated that an additional At least 1, to 1, of them are expected to be involved in sex work 6. In , doctors from the Ministry of Health examined Since , the Ministry has not been able to present a STD update 2.
Selection of the zones where the female condom project was implemented. This group is made up of HIV seropositive women nationwide and strives to improve their living conditions as well as defend their human and civic rights. Fifty HIV- seropositive women from different Venezuelan federal entities attended. The remaining thirty percent of all participants were members of fishermen villages of the Macanao Peninsula. At the same time, the female partners, who are left behind by the fishermen, tend to have sexual contacts with other men, as their steady partners leave them without economic support.
