HIV/AIDS Related Knowledge and Risk Behaviors among Female Sex Workers in Two Major Cities of Mongolia

Abstract

The prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Mongolia is still low. Only 29 HIV/AIDS cases have been registered in Mongolia with a population of 2.6 millions, as of April, 2007. In all of the cases the infection has been sexually transmitted and almost 90.0% of total HIV/AIDS cases have been detected since 2005. Past studies conducted in Mongolia indicated that sexually transmitted infections (STIs) had been spreading rapidly among high risk groups, which highlights an urgent need for prevention mainly targeting these groups. This study was conducted to evaluate HIV/AIDS related knowledge/behaviors, as well as to assess the prevalence of HIV and syphilis among female sex workers (SWs) in two major cities of Mongolia. A total of 342 sex workers (199 females from Darkhan and 143 females from Ulaanbaatar city) with the mean age of 25.8 years participated in the study. In Darkhan, HIV/AIDS related knowledge of SWs was higher (99.0%) and the prevalence of syphilis was lower (3.5%) than in Ulaanbaatar (88.8% and 36.0%, respectively). No new HIV cases among the female SWs have been detected despite high syphilis rates (17.4%) among the study subjects. Although condom useat last sex with paying clients was high (92.3%), the rate was low with non-paying, non-regular sex partners (56.9%). These findings indicated that despite relatively good HIV/AIDS related knowledge, high risk sexual behaviors were still common among the female SWs.