HIV/AIDS Acceptance and Access to Health Care Services on Female Sex Workers

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that every year there are 350 million new Sexual Transmitted Infection (STI) sufferers in developing countries. Areas with a high prevalence of STIs are accompanied by a high prevalence of HIV / AIDS which is found in many high-risk sexual behaviors. One of the sexual groups at high risk for STIs is Female Sex Workers (FSW). FSW has limited access to appropriate information and services of reproductive health. They are marginalized subgroups and there is a social stigma that is a barrier for them to access care and treatment. This is a qualitative research with case-study approach in the localization of Pasar Kembang and Bong Suwung in Yogyakarta City on May-June 2018. The subject of this study was seven FSW who suffered from HIV/AIDS, selected by snowball sampling. Data collection used in-depth interview and analyzed by content analysis. Many informants found out their HIV status during Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) in localization, some of them felt hopeless and wanted to commit suicide. The majority of informants thought that HIV/AIDS was a strange disease, but there were informants who said that HIV/AIDS was not dangerous because there were already had the drugs. The informants explained that they need a medical check-up regularly because they understand that their job has a high risk to be infected by many diseases, especially for genital disease and STIs. Informants wanted stop being a FSW because of economic and moral religiosity reason. It was found that there were still some informants who did not know that STIs and HIV/AIDS were dangerous disease. In this study known that there are routine health services in localization, but it is also known that there are no health services in high risk prostitute place such as karaoke house. Health education and services in prostitution location is required to increasing understanding, life skill and medical check-up access on FSW. Keywords—female sex worker, health care services, HIV AIDS acceptance