Submitted by admin on Thu, 2007-03-29 08:00. ::
Legalising prostitution would halve the rampant spread of sexual diseases and save the NHS £330 million every year, according to a medical expert.
And the regular testing of sex workers could also halt a dramatic increase in HIV cases in the UK which have rocketed 50-fold in areas where prostitutes from HIV endemic countries are offering unprotected sex for as little as £5.
Chris Spencer Jones, chair of the BMA public health committee, told the BMA's annual conference on public health and medicine that around 70 per cent of all STIs (sexually transmitted infections) occurred among prostitutes and their clients.
And he said that drug-addicted sex workers were most likely to catch and spread infections because they were more likely to be pressured into unprotected sex.
"If prostitution was legalised and regulated, you wouldn't get an exactly 70 per cent drop in STIs, but I would be confident in saying that you would get a 50 per cent drop.
"What I am told is that this is a widespread picture, so I would be happy to say that you would get the same results anywhere else in the country.
"Nationally, sexual health services cost around £700 million a year. While regulating prostitution would probably cost £20 - 25 million a year to staff, we're still looking at a saving of £330 million every year if the industry was regulated."
Mr Spencer Jones said that there had been an explosion in HIV cases after an influx of immigrants from HIV endemic countries, and that some sex workers were offering unprotected sex for as little as £5.
In the West Midlands, the HIV rate has risen 50-fold between 1994 and 2004, while in London the rate more than doubled while nationally the number of people infected quadrupled in that period.
He said: "In Birmingham we have got women from places like Somalia offering sex at very low prices. They will agree to unprotected sex for as little as £5.
"There has been a growth in HIV in Birmingham over the same time period that there was a lot of immigration from countries from HIV endemic countries such as Somalia and Zimbabwe.
"Not all of this is caused by prostitution because if you have people entering the country infected with HIV, the rates are going to go up anyway.
He added that the most prostitutes insisted that their clients wore condoms, but that vulnerable workers could be pressured into having unprotected sex by their clients.
He said: "If you wear a condom, your risk of catching an STI is dramatically reduced. I'm told by our team which works in the sex industry in Birmingham that prostitutes are very keen for their clients to wear condoms.
"Most workers at the top end of the market would not agree to have sex without a condom. Drug users at the lower end of prostitution don't want to have unprotected sex either, but if the clients says that they won't pay unless they do, then they will agree because they are desperate for their next fix."
And Mr Spencer Jones said that legalising and regulating prostitution would also reduce the rates of STIs among the partners of people who used prostitutes who might not use condoms because they did not realise they were at risk of catching an STI.
He said: "If someone is infected from prostitutes, it doesn't mean that they are only going to have sex with prostitutes, Their wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, are all put at risk, perhaps without realising it.
"HIV used to be a homosexual disease, but it spread into the heterosexual community. You only need one person to sleep with someone in a different group and it spreads like wildfire.
And he said that regulation of the industry would also make prostitutes safer, and prevent attacks like those which left at least five prostitutes in Suffolk and Norfolk dead last year.
He added: "If you look at somewhere like Holland, even they find it hard to regulate all of the sex workers, but what happens is that brothels seek a license, and they submit to regulations.
"If you got into that industry and it was monitored, the level of infection would drop. If they wanted to practise, prostitutes would be asked to submit for regular testing. At the moment, if a prostitutes has HIV, she can be giving it to people for years, but that wouldn't happen if they were tested on a regular basis.
"If a prostitute does get an STI that they know about, I would think that they would seek help, but not necessarily before they have infected other people.
"The sex workers would be safer as well. Things like the recent murders of prostitutes in Suffolk and Norfolk would be less likely to happed. Prostitutes get beaten up and exploited.
"Young girls who are vulnerable are lured into the industry and made to be dependant on drugs, and it would happen less if the industry was regulated. It's about reducing the human cost, about harm reduction."
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