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Abstract
HIV/AIDS Prevention through improved sexual health - Lessons learnt from the West Bengal Sexual Health Project
S Sengupta
West Bengal Sexual Health Project, Calcutta, India
Issues:
Strategies to reduce the spread of the HIV epidemic through sexual health interventions and good practices in sexual health program planning and implementation in resource poor settings
Description:
The West Bengal Sexual Health Project (WBSHP) is a six-year-old sexual health intervention comprising: 1. STD care and counseling 2. Behavior Change Communication, 3. Condom programming and 4. Creation of an enabling environment. The communities served by the project include: sex workers and their clients; street children; industrial workers; injecting drug users and fishing communities. This rights based project is implemented through a network of 21 NGOs. Over a thousand trained peer educators are reaching out to 5,50,000 people at high risk. 76 STD cases are being treated, 166 people counseled from 45 STD clinics daily. 6000 condoms are being distributed free and 1250 condoms socially marketed daily.
Lesons learnt:
An important part of the project’s success has been the recruitment and training of peer educators who have effectively promoted risk reduction and health seeking behaviour, increased accessibility to STD services and promoted condom use. Condom use among the target populations has increased substantially over the years. In the street children’s project, 66% had correct knowledge of condoms. 33% reported using condoms always. 43% of respondents reported always using condoms while 41% reported often use of condoms in Sonagachi. The prevalence of important infections such as Syphilis has substantially decreased in the target population over time. In Sonagachi, HIV prevalence has increased marginally from 4.8% in 1995 to 5.5% in 1998. Syphilis had declined from 14.3% in 1995 to 11.3% in 1998.
Recommendations:
Good practices emerging from the project have been used to scale up the project across the state. Lessons learnt have also been used to inform and influence strategies and policies at the state and national levels.
The XIV International AIDS Conference
Abstract no.
WePeG6891
Suggested Citation
" S Sengupta ,
HIV/AIDS Prevention through improved sexual health - Lessons learnt from the West Bengal Sexual Health Project
.
Poster Exhibition:
The XIV International AIDS Conference:
Abstract no.
WePeG6891"
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