"Disturbing health report" on sex workers in Iran published.

Source.

"Disturbing health report" on sex workers in Iran published. (Taz).

A report by Iran’s health ministry says that almost five percent of Iranian sex workers suffer HIV infection, Minoo Mohraz, head of the Iranian Research Center for HIV/AIDS said.

The “shocking report” unveils that the average age of female sex workers is about 38 years, Mohraz said, Iran’s ISNA news agency reported.

Iranian female sex workers are 18-56 years old, Mohraz said, adding 58 percent of women selling themselves are divorced. She said that only 44 percent of these women use condoms during sexual intercourse, while there are also those which do not, after they get paid extra money.

It is while some 68 percent of single female sex workers and 75 percent of divorced women selling themselves in Iran have never had an HIV test, Mohraz said.

“Two of every 14 street women in Tehran are infected with HIV,” Mohraz said, adding that the rising average marriage age is one of the reasons behind prostitution in Iran.


“We will witness the increase in the number of the AIDS patients if the problems regarding the marriage are not resolved,” she warned.

Over 12 million of Iranians aged 20 to 35 years are not married, Jalil Dorouzi, an official with Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS) said last January.


Information about AIDS is hidden in Iran for mental and religious reasons. People are not informed about virus transmission, so the number of infected in the country has greatly increased. Read the full story here.