OUTREACH STD CLINICS FOR PROSTITUTES IN EDINBURGH

This paper describes the establishment Of Genito-Urinary Medicine outr each clinics based in 2 drop-in centres for female prostitutes in Edin burgh; 242 women have received medical care at these outreach clinics. STD screening has been carried out on 160 (63%), detecting one case o f gonorrhoeal 11 cases of chlamydia, 11 cases of genital warts, and 2 cases of recurrent genital herpes. With regards to HIV serostatus, 8 w omen were already known to be HIV seropositive and 18 were known to be seronegative. One hundred and fifteen women have been tested at the o utreach clinics, yielding one positive result. The serostatus of 91 wo men is unknown. There have been 42 pregnancies, some of which were con ceived through client contact. The prevalence of STDs including HIV is low and would suggest that condom usage is high. However, this level of usage is associated with significant numbers of unwanted pregnancie s. Prostitutes in Edinburgh do not appear to act as a significant focu s for dissemination of HIV infection.