US: Louisiana Fuels HIV Epidemic
Louisiana state laws and practices that prohibit access to sterile syringes and criminalize sex work contribute to an uncontrolled HIV epidemic and an extremely high AIDS death rate. The AIDS death rate in Louisiana is more than double the US average. New Orleans police regularly interfere with sex workers who carry condoms, putting them and their clients at risk of HIV.
“The HIV epidemic in New Orleans is one of the worst in the US, and proven strategies for addressing it are being ignored,” said Megan McLemore, senior health researcher at Human Rights Watch and the report’s author. “People who use drugs can’t get clean needles, and police are confiscating condoms from sex workers and those suspected of sex work, such as transgender women.”
Photo: An outreach team from Unity Of Greater New Orleans counsels a homeless man on housing options, January 2011.
© 2011 AP Photo/Gerald HerbertHaven’t sex workers and drug users been saying this for decades? Oh yeah. We have.
SW11