The risk of being infected with HIV is nine times higher among sex workers. In Nice, to combat this overexposure, the Aides association goes to meet prostitutes to give them condoms and offer them screening.
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That evening, she enters the Aides association truck, driven by Nina and Lisa. Night has fallen over Nice for a while and the young woman risks missing a customer. But, this time, it will be his health above all: “jI have to be careful. I get tested every three months.”
Dressed in a sequined skirt and a short black faux fur jacket, she drinks a coffee to warm up then she sits down on the small blue seat of the vehicle. “Sometimes I suffer from accidents. Condoms breakconfides this sex worker to the two activists of the association.
At the same time, one of them takes a few drops of blood from her fingertip. Thirty minutes later, the result falls. Relief. It is negative.
The Aides association offers sex workers the opportunity to be tested in their truck in Nice.
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© Coralie Challan / FTV
Overexposure to HIV
In 2022, according to a report published by UNAIDS in August 2024, sex workers are nine times more likely to be infected with HIV than the rest of the general adult population in the world. Although this figure has fallen by 35% since 2010, the exposure of prostitutes to this virus is “disproportionate” Point Aides on its website.
According to the association, their overexposure to HIV as well as to all sexually transmitted diseases is particularly due to “the criminalization of certain aspects of sex work, punitive laws, interpersonal or institutional violence, stigma and discrimination”. On its Internet page, Aides ensures that all this “constitutes barriers to ‘social justice and equality’ for SDD and ‘barriers’ to health services (HIV, sexual and reproductive health).”
In France, according to a Médecins du Monde report published in 2022, the law of April 13, 2016, which penalizes clients, would have a direct impact on the sexual health of sex workers. According to the humanitarian association, this law would lead clients to impose their conditions more often and easily under the pretext that they are taking more risks. Thus, unprotected sex can easily be requested.
“This situation pushes them to take more risks at work and the impacts on health are worrying. Indeed, the qualitative interviews worryingly suggest a decline in the use of condoms as well as discontinuations of treatment for HIV-positive people”it is specified in the report.
Driving their truck, Nina and Lisa come into contact with sex workers at least once a week. “Since the 2016 law, they have been hiding so they can have customers”underlines one of them, turning her gaze from right to left. Since sex workers have been hiding more, members of the Aides association have had more difficulty spotting them. However, their presence always seems appreciated.
“It gives me confidence,” assures one of the women met on the road. She doesn’t have much time. She refuses a coffee, but happily takes the bag given by Nina and Lisa. It is filled with condoms, the only “bulwark” – along with screening – against sexually transmitted infections, according to Santé Publique France. The Aides activists also take the opportunity to chat with her and do a little prevention.
Note, moreover, that vigilance regarding sexually transmitted diseases is generally decreasing.
According to an Ifop survey for Aides made public on Wednesday September 25, 40% of French people consider that the risks of being contaminated by AIDS are low.
Thus, the association emphasizes that currently 200,000 people live with HIV, while 24,000 do not know they are infected.
Then, each year in the Paca region, 300 people discover their HIV status.
