Sex business, considered as the main contributor to HIV/AIDS spread, is on the rise in South Asia region, the state-owned new agency the RSS reported.

The news agency cited a report prepared by the Commission on AIDS in Asia which found that around 1,000,000 Asian women sell sex for their livelihood. It stated that those sex workers have been serving seven persons a day. The report has put the number of regular male service-takers from sex workers at 7,000,000.

It said male-male sex and drug injecting add another 20 million to the number of men at high risk of HIV infection. A portion of those men, particularly injectors, may also pass HIV on to the women with whom they regularly have sex, putting several million more women at risk.

The report said few women in Asia have sex with more than one partner. The report said HIV epidemics in Asia are highly unlikely to sustain themselves in the “general population” independently of commercial sex, drug injecting and sex between men.

Low levels of condom use during paid sex, the report said, contribute to increasing HIV infection. Programme for increasing use of condoms with sex workers will do more than any other intervention to control HIV infections in Asia. nepalnews.com Nov 02 08