Truckers and Commercial Sex Workers

Education Message at Truck Stop of SPYM
May 31, 2007

Today we had our weekly meeting with our medical director, Dr. Raina at Apollo Hospital in Delhi where he is also director of blood services. He gave us a tour of the facilities including the blood donation center and the blood supply testing facilities. In India blood donations are not done on a voluntary basis the way it is done in the U.S, there are donors who donate repeatly and while the government used to pay for donations that practice has been suspended and now the patients'friends and donate blood as the patient needs it.
Apollo tests their blood supply for HIV, Hepatitis A & B, Syphilis and Malaria. For HIV they conduct both an antibody test as well as a nucleic acid test to look for the virus. Unlike most facilities that test only for HIV antibodies, Apollo is able to conduct both tests because of its vast resources. It serves the top 1-2% of the population that can afford to pay for high end medical care, as well as medical tourism. Despite the stringent tests, 1 out of every 40,000 blood samples still contains HIV.

We had an enlightening lunch in the Executive Dining Area with Dr. Raina as we discussed the human condition, especially in India, religion and global health. He is incredibly nice and hospitable. When he found out I was having a hard time adjusting, he invited me to stay at his house! No doctor in the US would do that!

In the afternoon we visited SPYM's local HIV/STD testing and counseling center at a truck stop in Delhi. SPYM (Society for the Promotion of Youth and the Masses, spym.org) is an NGO that serves the community in developing and prevention of HIV/AIDS, STDs and drug abuse. We were able to interact and pick the brains of health management workers, peer educators and HIV counselors. The truck drivers, who spend months away from their families come in to the truck stop and have sexual relations with the local commercial sex workers(CSW). The center works to educate both the truck drivers and the CSWs in safe sex practices, HIV and STDs and gives out free condoms and free HIV tests. The CSWs are mostly impoverished women from the local community who are forced to sell their bodies to support their families, often because their husbands are unemployed or/and are abusing substances and chose to look the other as their wife goes to her daily duties. Through the sheer will power of their elderly peer educator, the center has been successful in empowering the local CSWs to demand condom use from their clients. She said she will often accompany the women to the designed room or a spot in the forest as they conduct their transaction with the truckers to make sure that they use a condom and use it correctly. Most of CSWs and truckers know her, respect her because of her age and therefore listen to her advice.
This particular visit was extremely enlightening because Sej has given a presentation in class about this very topic in class and to be here to see it first hand and talk to them personally is a quite extraordinary.

Tomorrow we were supposed to visit a remote village called Mewat (and Jaipur on Saturday), where an indigenous population has hung on to its ancient roots, however, there is currently a political uprising by this population and all roads leading out of Delhi are blocked. So we're staying put in Delhi for the time being.