British sex workers healthier plying their trade off streets rather than on

William Atkins
Wednesday, 20 June 2007 05:00

Science - Health

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Nikki Jeal, of Cardiff University, and Chris Salisbury, of the University of Bristol, conducted interviews with 71 street-walking prostitutes and 71 massage parlor prostitutes.

Overall, the street-based workers had many more health problems than did their off-street counterparts. They complained much more of such illnesses and conditions as deep vein thrombosis, chest infections, hepatitis B and hepatitis C, various abscesses, depression, and anxiety than the prostitutes working massage parlor establishments.

The study found that the street-based women did have frequent contacts with healthcare providers, with the general practitioner being their primary doctor to visit. However, even though 59 out of 71 women were registered with a general practitioner, only 36 out of those 59 had told their doctor about their sex-based work.

Consequently, only 33 out of 71 had been screened for sexually transmitted infections and only 17 out of 71 were vaccinated against hepatitis B, which is a national recommendation for all sex workers in England.

Jeal and Salisbury concluded that street sex workers suffered twice the amount of illness as massage parlor sex workers. They also concluded that drug use was much more common with street workers, which was considered a major reason why their health was worse than the parlor workers.

Another conclusion from the study was that massage parlor workers were more likely to be screened for sexually transmitted diseases and more likely to use contraceptives and condoms. Because of not telling their doctors their occupation and by not following up with further health care, the British researchers felt this also contributed to the reason why street prostitutes had worse health than the parlor workers.

According to Jeal, "Although they are all labelled as sex workers, their health needs are very different," says Jeal. She suggests that extra services such as dedicated health workers be offered to all persons labeled in England as sex workers.

However, the government would be treating people whose occupation (indirectly) has been made illegal by the government. Prostitution is not directly illegal in England, however, certain activities surrounding the act are illegal such as solicitation for sex on the street, running a brothel, using prostitutes for monetary profit (pimps).