Kokku Suresh Babu, Mahapatra Bidhubhusan, Tucker Saroj, Saggurti Niranjan, Prabhakar Parimi
India HIV/AIDS Alliance, Hyderabad, India.
Indian J Med Res. 2014 Feb;139(2):285-93.
BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Providing sexually transmitted infection (STI) services to female sex workers (FSWs) in rural and resource constrained settings is a challenge. This paper describes an approach to address this challenge through a partnership with government health facilities, and examines the effect of this partnership on the utilization of STI services by FSWs in Andhra Pradesh, India.
Partnerships were formed with 46 government clinics located in rural areas for providing STI treatment to FSWs in 2007. Government health facilities were supported by local and State level non-government organizations (NGOs) through provision of medicines, training of medical staff, outreach in the communities, and other coordination activities. Data from programme monitoring and behaviour tracking survey were used to examine the accessibility and acceptability in utilization of STI services from partnership clinics.
The number of FSWs accessing services at the partnership clinics increased from 1627 in 2007 to over 15,000 in 2010. The average number of annual visits by FSWs to these clinics in 2010 was 3.4. In opinion surveys, the majority of FSWs accessing services at the partnership clinics expressed confidence that they would continue to receive effective services from the government facilities even if the programme terminates. The overall attitude of FSWs to visit government clinics was more positive among FSWs from partnership clinic areas compared to those from non-partnership clinic areas.
INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: The partnership mechanism between the NGO-supported HIV prevention programme and government clinic facilities appeared to be a promising opportunity to provide timely and accessible STI services for FSWs living in rural and remote areas.
在农村及资源有限的环境中为女性性工作者提供性传播感染（STI）服务是一项挑战。本文描述了一种通过与政府卫生机构合作应对这一挑战的方法，并考察了这种合作关系对印度安得拉邦女性性工作者利用STI服务的影响。
2007年，与位于农村地区的46家政府诊所建立了合作关系，为女性性工作者提供STI治疗。地方和邦级非政府组织（NGO）通过提供药品、培训医务人员、社区外展及其他协调活动来支持政府卫生机构。利用项目监测和行为跟踪调查的数据来考察合作诊所STI服务利用的可及性和可接受性。
在合作诊所接受服务的女性性工作者数量从2007年的1627人增加到2010年的超过15000人。2010年女性性工作者到这些诊所的年平均就诊次数为3.4次。在意见调查中，在合作诊所接受服务的大多数女性性工作者表示，即使该项目终止，她们也相信会继续从政府机构获得有效的服务。与非合作诊所地区的女性性工作者相比，合作诊所地区的女性性工作者去政府诊所就诊的总体态度更为积极。
由NGO支持的HIV预防项目与政府诊所设施之间的合作机制似乎是为生活在农村和偏远地区的女性性工作者提供及时且可及的STI服务的一个有前景的机会。
