CHENNAI: Condom ads seem to have paid off, as a survey done among female sex workers in Tamil Nadu has indicated that a whopping 98.5 % of their clients have insisted on using the rubber. According to the findings of the APAC-TANSACS Behaviour Surveillance Survey conducted in December 2011 among commercial sex workers and high risk groups in 15 towns across the State, this rise is a huge 95.7% over the same number registered in the previous round. Not only will condom makers be delighted at all the extra business, the state’s AIDS control unit is also heartened that more people in the high risk category care to use condoms. Even homosexual men (MSMs) seem to have received the message as 96.1% of them have said that they use condoms.The education and awareness part seems to have worked wonders among the sex workers as well: 94.1% of the 5000 persons surveyed said that they had visited a qualified medical practitioner when they experienced symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases. MSMs also appear to be subscribing to the trend as 91% of them took an HIV test, in the last year.Truckers and helpers, considered one of the major risk groups susceptible to the disease, have apparently been staying safe, as the number of them who had sought the services of a prostitute have dropped from 45.1% to a respectable 28.5%, from the last time around. The survey has also indicated that over half of them (60%) have undergone an HIV test in the past year.
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