TY - JOUR AU - Gurnani, Vandana AU - Beattie, Tara S. AU - Bhattacharjee, Parinita AU - Mohan, HL AU - Maddur, Srinath AU - Washington, Reynold AU - Isac, Shajy AU - Ramesh, BM AU - Moses, Stephen AU - Blanchard, James F. AU - CFAR Team PY - 2011 DA - 2011/10/02 TI - An integrated structural intervention to reduce vulnerability to HIV and sexually transmitted infections among female sex workers in Karnataka state, south India JO - BMC Public Health SP - 755 VL - 11 IS - 1 AB - Structural factors are known to affect individual risk and vulnerability to HIV. In the context of an HIV prevention programme for over 60,000 female sex workers (FSWs) in south India, we developed structural interventions involving policy makers, secondary stakeholders (police, government officials, lawyers, media) and primary stakeholders (FSWs themselves). The purpose of the interventions was to address context-specific factors (social inequity, violence and harassment, and stigma and discrimination) contributing to HIV vulnerability. We advocated with government authorities for HIV/AIDS as an economic, social and developmental issue, and solicited political leadership to embed HIV/AIDS issues throughout governmental programmes. We mobilised FSWs and appraised them of their legal rights, and worked with FSWs and people with HIV/AIDS to implement sensitization and awareness training for more than 175 government officials, 13,500 police and 950 journalists. SN - 1471-2458 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-11-755 DO - 10.1186/1471-2458-11-755 ID - Gurnani2011 ER -