Mobility, Poverty and HIV

It has been internationally recognised (UNGASS/Para 11) that poverty is a factor in HIV, but for most countries and individuals it is still fundamental to why they are infected and why they has so little access to treatment. Time, too, to be honest about the links between poverty and sex work. In resource rich countries some sex workers may make a conscious choice to enter the industry. Choices in any form are not available to many of the girls who are trafficked into sex work and who have little or no ability to ensure that their clients use condoms. HIV is just one factor in the whole question of poverty and inequality in this region and unless we recognise and incorporate into practice an acknowledgement that poverty means powerlessness then all the education and prevention techniques we devise will have limited impact. This approach has implications for many aspects of what has become the HIV/AIDS industry. It requires a different mindset in the resource rich countries and amongst donor agencies, and an acknowledgment in national planning that economic measures are essential to an overall approach to dealing with the epidemic.