Prostitutes shrug off A.I.D.S. danger

Press, 28 July 1987, Page 13

Prostitutes shrug off A.I.D.S. danger

NZPA-Reuter Rio de Janeiro Brazilian prostitutes ended their first national meeting saying they hoped to have their profession legalised and that they were unconcerned by the danger of A.I.D.S. Some 50 prostitutes from throughout Brazil attended the four-day meeting, where they discussed civil rights, health, police harassment and the deadly acquired immune deficiency syndrome. “I wouldn’t be surprised if someone told me that some condom manufacturers were behind this movement on how to prevent A.I.D.S. I think syphilis and tuberculosis are far more serious,” Gabriela Silva Leite, aged 36, a sociologist and former prostitute who organised the meeting, told a news conference.

Doctors say condoms are an effective tool to prevent sexual transmission of the A.I.D.S. virus. Brazil has more than 1000 confirmed A.I.D.S. cases and is South America’s hardest-hit country. “I never heard that a prostitute died of A.I.D.S. I think this is just a way to discriminate against homosexuals and prostitutes,” said Maria Jose, a prostitute from the northeastern state of Bahia. Ms Leite said the prostitutes hoped Brazil’s Constituent Assembly would vote to legalise their profession as it draws up a new Constitution. “Prostitutes who cruise in the streets are arrested on charges of soliciting. This is unfair, because we are always forced to pay some money in case we want to avoid being jailed,” she said.