The World Health Organization in Geneva has just released their new guidelines for prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted infections among female sex workers.

They are disappointing.

1) By conflating HIV and STI prevention, the authors have dodged the fact that five out of six studies have shown that treatment of sexually transmitted infections has no impact on the incidence of new HIV infections in the community.

2) They then make a few initial recommendations based on 'common sense' instead of evidence. This is sad.

3) Finally, they make only two strong recommendations for prevention of HIV: community empowerment for which there is little evidence, and condom use for which we don't need any more evidence. Or advice.

Is this the best that WHO can do? Let [him] know what you think.

[him] moderator

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http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/77745/1/9789241504744_eng.pdf