The [him] moderator would be interested in hearing reader views about HIV and fishing communities in Myanmar. Some of the most mature epidemics in the country are in Thaninthyari.

[him] moderator

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AIDS-related illness "devastatingly high" in fishing

communities

 

By MARTA FALCONI Associated Press Writer

 

ROME, March 5 (AP) - Fishing communities in some poor countries

have the highest HIV rates, a U.N. agency warned Monday -- a

little-known phenomenon caused mainly by fishermen's travels and

a custom of trading sex for fish.

 

AIDS-related illness and mortality are devastatingly high in

some fishing communities, making them a priority for prevention

and treatment programs, the Rome-based Food and Agriculture

Organization said in a report on the state of world fisheries.

 

"The rates of HIV are higher in fishing communities than any

other sector," said Serge Garcia, an expert at FAO's Fisheries

Resources Division. "The grandfathers and the babies are alive,

but there's hardly anybody in the middle."

 

Surveys done since 1992 show that HIV prevalence rates among

people in fishing communities in Cambodia, Democratic Republic

of Congo, Honduras, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Myanmar,

Thailand and Uganda are between 4 and 14 times higher than the

national average prevalence rate for adults aged 15 to 49.

 

The numbers are greater than those for other mobile populations

such as military and truck drivers, according to the available

data.

 

"Our findings show that fishing communities are much more at

risk than agriculture communities," said Marcela Villarreal,

FAO's focal point for HIV and director of the Gender, Equity and

Rural Employment Division. "Any kind of profession involving

migration and being away from home makes the people more

vulnerable to getting infected."

 

In some African communities, one of the reasons is transactional

sex between fishermen and female fish traders, which experts see

as a potential major route of transmission.

 

"There is almost an unwritten table of exchange of sex for

fish," Villarreal said. "Women are forced into risky sexual

behavior because of lack of other means of livelihood."

 

The mobility, the time spent away from home, access to daily

cash income in an overall context of poverty and the

availability of commercial sex in many fishing ports are also

among the causes, the report said. Exposure to waterborne

diseases and malaria, along with poor sanitation and limited

access to medical care, also increase the risk of infection.

 

The difference in HIV prevalence is likely to persist for

several years, the report warned, unless the community is

identified as being at risk.

 

The report also said higher rates of HIV impact heavily on

fisheries management.

 

"It is not only a problem of health. These people depend on

agriculture and fishery for their survival," Villarreal said.