Abstract
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES:
To describe and understand Ayoreo sex
workers' perceptions of HIV/AIDS and to identify factors that may affect the
prevention of risk behaviours.
BACKGROUND:
According to recent HIV/AIDS incidence
reports, being female, indigenous and a sex worker means belonging to a
maximum-risk group, left in the background in terms of strategies for the fight
against HIV. Although there has been research into intervention models in these
populations, it is important to detail the perceptions of the problem from the
perspective of sex workers from the affected ethnic groups.
DESIGN:
This study used an ethnographic
methodology that included participant observation and semi-structured
interviews.
METHODS:
The research was conducted in two phases.
First, participant observation was chosen to access and observe the behaviour
of Ayoreo sex workers. The second phase was a semi-structured interview with
sex workers and key informants. The interviews, together with the field notes,
were transcribed and analysed, following inductive strategies to find emerging
themes.
RESULTS:
Here, we present the results related to
four emerging themes: the cultural acceptance of sex work as a useful economic
activity; the lack of concern for sexually transmitted illnesses and the
stigmatisation of people who are HIV seropositive; external factors that
increase vulnerability such as difficulties in using a condom; and conflictive
and unbalanced relationships between the Ayoreo people and the health system
and health professionals.
CONCLUSIONS:
The health- and sexual
reproduction-related culture, the knowledge and attitudes of sex workers,
external factors, and relationships with the health system and health
professionals continue to place Ayoreo sex workers in high-risk conditions in
relation to sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS.
RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE:
Employing cultural care as its base,
nursing could develop programmes and interventions culturally adapted for the
prevention of disease and the promotion of health in these populations.
1High Guadalquivir Public Hospital, Andújar, Jaén,
Spain.
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