Outreach STD Clinics for Prostitutes in Edinburgh

Abstract

This paper describes the establishment of Genito-Urinary Medicine outreach clinics based in 2 drop-in centres for female prostitutes in Edinburgh; 242 women have received medical care at these outreach clinics. STD screening has been carried out on 160 (63%), detecting one case of gonorrhoea, 11 cases of chlamydia, 11 cases of genital warts, and 2 cases of recurrent genital herpes. With regards to HIV serostatus, 8 women were already known to be HIV seropositive and 18 were known to be seronegative. One hundred and fifteen women have been tested at the outreach clinics, yielding one positive result. The serostatus of 91 women is unknown. There have been 42 pregnancies, some of which were conceived through client contact. The prevalence of STDs including HIV is low and would suggest that condom usage is high. However, this level of usage is associated with significant numbers of unwanted pregnancies. Prostitutes in Edinburgh do not appear to act as a significant focus for dissemination of HIV infection.