Do Australian sex workers still harbour sexually transmissable infections?

Abstract

[Extract] For at least the past few centuries, female commercial sex workers (CSWs) have been viewed by governments, churches, and much of the public as spreaders of sexually transmissible infections (STIs), and all manner of sanctions – including criminal ones - have been aimed at this workforce, often with no evidence that such measures were effective from a public health perspective. The HIV era has more recently sharpened the focus on sex workers around the globe, with good evidence that sex work can indeed be one of the many drivers of increasing rates of HIV incidence in a population.