A Thai woman who met with scores of clients in Tainan for sex over the past two weeks has tested positive for HIV, the Tainan Public Health Bureau said on Wednesday.
The 26-year-old woman, who arrived on a visitor’s visa, was picked up at a Tainan hotel by police after one of her clients got into a fight with a man who was posing as a police officer and trying to extort money from her clients, police said.
She had arrived in Taiwan earlier this month and was offering sexual services in Taoyuan, Taichung and Tainan, charging NT$2,800 each time, the police said.
She has visited Taiwan five times since October last year, and met with seven to eight clients a day at hotels, police said.
During her recent stay in Tainan, the woman might have served as many as 100 customers, police said.
After being detained, the woman was tested for HIV and found to be positive, police said, adding they have asked her to provide a list of clients.
The health bureau said anyone who has bought sexual services since October should be tested for HIV within three months of contact and then be tested again in three months.
Free, anonymous HIV and syphilis tests are available at public health centers and clinics nationwide, the bureau said.
This is the second case this month of an HIV-positive Thai prostitute being discovered working in Taiwan.
A 24-year-old woman who entered the country on March 11 on a visitor’s visa was arrested in Taitung County on April 2 for engaging in sex work. Tests showed she is HIV positive.
The most recent known case of HIV among Taiwanese sex workers was in July last year, when a 60-year-old woman in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華) tested positive, the Kunming branch of Taipei City Hospital said, adding that it was the first such case in three years.
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