Promoting Sexual Health Through Action Research Among Young Male Sex Workers in RIO De Janeiro, Brazil

Abstract

AIDS in Brazil, as in many parts of the world, has been an epidemic characterized by multiple parallel-localized epidemics. Youth, particularly young men who have sex with men (YMSM), are amongst the most vulnerable populations for HIV infection in Brazil. Furthermore, our research findings from the early 1990s suggested that significantly higher levels of continued unprotected anal sex among occurred among young men under the age of 24 as opposed to older men in the sample. While 22.0% of the entire sample reported receptive anal sex without a condom, 41.5% those under the age of 24 reported receptive anal sex without a condom. Conversely, while 73.0% of the sample as a whole reported using a condom for insertive anal sex, only 53.4% of those under the age of 24 reported condom use for insertive anal sex (Parker, R. and Terto, V. 2001). Sub-sequent analyses from survey and ethnographic data suggested that a range of different cultural and sociological factors, including socio-economic status, race, and gender performance were all relevant factors affecting levels of risk-related behavior, with higher levels of risk consistently being reported by young men from poorer, more marginalized backgrounds from the favelas (shantytowns) and subúrbios (outlying or peri-urban poor neighborhoods) in which the correlations between poverty and communities of color typical in Brazilian society are especially strong.