Sexual networks in Uganda: Casual and Commercial sex in a trading town

"A longitudinal study of the sexual behavior of high-risk men and women living in a trading town on the trans-Africa highway showed that distinct sexual networks operated within the town. Forty-eight prostitutes kept daily records for 6 months of all their sexual contacts including the occupation and place of residence of each client and the price paid. Details of 4573 sexual contacts of the women were recorded. Three classes of women were identified: (1) 20 ""high-class' women who charged a mean price of over US$4/- per contact. The majority of their clients were from large urban areas of Uganda (55) or neighbouring countries (32) - 70were truck-drivers or their mates; (2) 18 ""low-class' women; charging an average of US$0.4 per contanct; who were unskilled casual workers (58); (3) 10 women fell into an intermediate category in terms of price and the residence of their clients. Thirty-eight male potential clients were recruited in low-costs bars where some of the women worked. They provided similar details of their daily sexual contacts. All were resident in the toown and 22 had occupations which were classified as unskilled. Of the 1621 sexual contacts recorded by the men 25were with new partnets."

Sexual mixing patterns in Uganda: small-time urban/rural traders

OBJECTIVE: To document the extent to which rural and urban-based male traders have sexual contacts away from their place of residence. METHODS: Fifty-one traders (46 who travel by bicycle and five others) kept daily diaries of all their journeys and sexual contacts for a total of 584 person-weeks. Twenty-five were resident in a trading town where HIV prevalence was about 40and 26 lived up to 25 km away in rural areas where HIV prevalence was approximately 8. RESULTS: A total of 2147 return trips were made (mean; 3.7 perweek). Eighty per cent were between the trading town and the surrounding rural area. A total of 1377 sexual contacts were recorded (mean; 2.3 per week); 95of the contacts of urban-based men occurred in the town; 3in other urban areas and 2in a rural area. For rural-based men 82of sexual contacts took place in their home village; 14in a neighbouring village; 2in the trading town and 3in other urban centres. CONCLUSION: Despite considerable economic interaction there is very little sexual mixing between the town and surrounding rural areas. This may explain why the high HIV prevalence found in some trading towns in Africa has not diffused out to rural areas