Federal government websites often end in. The site is secure. Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October Learn More or Try it out now. Sri Lanka has a low-level HIV epidemic. Participants provided biological specimens for testing for infections and completed a behavioural questionnaire. FSW in Colombo had higher positivity on Treponema pallidum -particle agglutination test 8.
However, lower proportion of FSW used condoms every time during sex with clients in the past 30 day: Across cities, The commonest reasons for never testing for HIV was not knowing where to test This multi-ethnic, middle income country has a population of In , HIV infected persons were newly reported nationwide, the highest number in a year since when the first case was identified [ 4 ]. Using mapping and the multiplier methods in , it was estimated that the population size of female sex workers FSW is 30, plausibility range 20,β35, [ 5 ].
Sex work in Sri Lanka is illegal and highly stigmatised [ 6 ]. In Galle, HIV prevalence was estimated at 1.
In Kandy, no HIV or syphilis infections were found [ 7 ]. Only about a third of the participants were able to correctly identify modes of transmission of HIV and reject major misconceptions about HIV transmission across the three cities. In Sri Lanka, HIV testing in key populations is carried out in sexually transmitted infection STI clinics, as well as through outreach testing services [ 4 ]. Whilst the number of STI clinic-based HIV testing among FSW rose moderately from tests performed in to in , outreach testing among FSW rose markedly, from tests in to tests in [ 4 ].
We hypothesised that there will be a significant increase in condom use with non-paying partners and ever testing for HIV when data are compared with By repeating surveys in the same cities over time, temporal changes in HIV indicators can be assessed. According to the findings of the latest Demographic and Health Survey in Sri Lanka done in , which included ever married women aged 15β49, there are some substantial socio-economic differences among these three cities [ 9 ].
