Factors related to female sex workers' willingness to utilize VCT service: a qualitative study in Jinan city, northern China.

Abstract

While not mentioned in the authors' conclusion, it has been found and it is also my experience that condom education for HIV prevention does not cause uptake unless it is culturally based {1}. It is important for the international community to take this principle seriously so to cut the chain of transmission and prevent rapid HIV transmission as that being experienced in China. Culture should be infused in all condom education and communication fora. This is about condom use. knowledge. attitude and practices, and the process is influenced by culture, gender norms and what is accepted by the 'boyfriends'. The findings of the study are relevant to what I have observed in different cultures and a variety of African countries, that people put forward all sorts of culture arguments not to use condom. This includes. 'it is like eating a banana with its skin on' and 'sex has not taken place unless it is flesh to flesh and semen has been deposited in the vagina'.