Conflicting Rights: How the Prohibition of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation Infringes the Right to Health of Female Sex Workers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

While repressive laws and policies in relation to sex work have the potential to undermine HIV prevention efforts, empirical research on their interface has been lacking. In 2008, Cambodia introduced antitrafficking legislation ostensibly designed to suppress human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Based on empirical research with female sex workers, this article examines the impact of the new law on vulnerability to HIV and other adverse health outcomes.

Sex work and HIV in Cambodia: trajectories of risk and disease in two cohorts of high-risk young women in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Objectives: HIV prevalence among Cambodian female sex workers (FSW) is among the highest in Southeast Asia. We describe HIV prevalence and associated risk exposures in FSW sampled serially in Phnom Penh, Cambodia (Young Women's Health Study (YWHS)), before and after the implementation of a new law designed to combat human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

Design: Cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from two prospective cohorts.

Condom negotiation across different relationship types by young women engaged in sex work in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Cambodia's 100% Condom Use Programme is credited with an increase in consistent condom use in commercial sexual interactions and a decrease in HIV prevalence among female sex workers (FSWs). There has been little improvement in condom use between FSWs and non-commercial partners, prompting calls for more innovative approaches to increasing condom use in these relationships. To understand why condoms are used or not used in sexual interactions involving FSWs, we examined condom negotiation across different types of relationships.

Selling sex in unsafe spaces: sex work risk environments in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Background: The risk environment framework provides a valuable but under-utilised heuristic for understanding environmental vulnerability to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections among female sex workers. Brothels have been shown to be safer than street-based sex work, with higher rates of consistent condom use and lower HIV prevalence. While entertainment venues are also assumed to be safer than street-based sex work, few studies have examined environmental influences on vulnerability to HIV in this context.

Social meanings of adherence to antiretroviral therapy in Cambodia.

Global expansion of antiretroviral therapy (ART) programmes for people living with HIV is the largest public health undertaking to date. Antiretroviral therapy adherence drives individual and programme outcomes, yet little is known regarding the determinants of these behaviours. We investigated beliefs and practices associated with ART use in Cambodia.