Sexual Behaviors, Knowledge and Attitudes of Female Sex Workers’ towards HIV/AIDS in Shiraz

Background: human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) epidemicsare largely linked to high-risk populations such as femalecommercial sex workers (fsws). this study assessed sexualbehaviors, attitudes and knowledge of this marginalized group.methods: we conducted a cross- sectional study on 278 selfidentifiedfsws by using respondent driven sampling (rds)method in shiraz, south of iran, from june 2010 to march 2011.volunteer women were interviewed in order to explore issuessuch as sexual behavior, sexual violence, work conditions,contraceptive methods, hiv/aids knowledge, hiv test, andsource of hiv information.results: the majority of participants (95.1%) knew aboutcondoms; however, only 40.6% used condoms consistently.despite the subject’s wide knowledge regarding modes oftransmission, 61% and 40% did not use any protection with analand oral intercourse, respectively. 21% of fsws experiencedsexual violence. nearly half (45.2%) of them had an hiv testand more than three-quarters knew their test results. the womenin our study preferred to receive their information from healthworkers (63%) and peer group (45.2%).conclusion: this study sheds light on the existing knowledgeand practices of this high-risk group. although the majority offsws were familiar with hiv/aids, risky behaviors such as analand oral sex are still in practice; this calls for education and hivprevention campaigns focusing on risk education awareness.efforts in addressing the problem of inconsistent condom useneeds to be directed towards client specific approaches and mustbe regarded a top priority.