Over 47 pct of Cambodian hookers suffer from sexual diseases

Some 47.1 percent of Cambodia's prostitutes were contaminated with sexual diseases mainly because they only asked 80 percent of their clients to wear condoms while rarely adopting any protective measures when they had sex with lovers or husbands, a local media reported here on Wednesday.

Around 90 percent of the hookers with STD (sexually transmitted diseases) had been hospitalized and 47 percent of them still provided service to hustlers after they had STD, the Huanshang Dailu quoted a census as saying.

Prostitutes from 20 to 24 years old were the most vulnerable ones to STD, as they had much more active sexual lives than other age groups, said the census conducted by the Cambodian government.

The ratio of STD spread among this specific group of women was almost the same as that of 2000, said the census, for which 1081 hookers, 623 policemen and 547 gays were interviewed.

Meanwhile, 25 percent of the policemen had the experience of visiting prostitutes and only 49 percent of those contaminated with STD dared to go to hospital, said the census conducted in eight provinces.

In addition, around 50 percent of the gay people had more than one sexual partners and 63 percent of them were in the business of selling their bodies, it said.

Only 70 percent of the gays adopted condoms in their sexual lives and 8.7 percent of them had aids, it added.

Source: Xinhua