A 60-year-old female sex worker in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華) was recently confirmed to be infected with HIV, making her the first HIV case among sex workers in Taipei in three years, the Taipei City Hospital Kunming Branch said yesterday.
The woman could have served as many as 700 to 800 customers from late last year to last month, the hospital said, while advising those who have had unprotected sex with sex workers in the district to get tested for HIV.
The last time the woman had been tested for HIV was late last year, when she tested negative, but her most recent test was confirmed positive, the hospital’s sexually transmitted infections control center chief of nursing Zhuang Ping (莊苹) said.
Zhuang said the center has helped the woman receive medical treatment.
Sexually transmitted disease screening conducted by the center over the past few years have found that young sex workers were prone to gonorrhea and chlamydia, while older sex workers were particularly vulnerable to syphilis, Zhuang said.
Zhuang described the new HIV case as rare and said the sex worker was likely at greater risk of HIV infection because she could not demand that her customers use condoms.
She serves more than 100 customers per month, most of whom are repeat clients, Zhuang said, warning people against unprotected sex with multiple sex partners.
Zhuang also suggested that people who are HIV-negative, but at high risk of HIV infection, take pre-exposure prophylaxis.
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