Livelihood and the risk of HIV/AIDS infection in Ghana: the case of female itinerant traders.

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Livelihood and the risk of HIV/AIDS infection in Ghana: the case of female itinerant traders.

Health Transit Rev. 1997;7 Suppl:225-42. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE MED/97421475
Anarfi JK; Appiah EN; Awusabo-Asare K; Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, University of; Ghana, Legon.

Abstract: Itinerant trading is the second major economic activity for women who constitute an important chain in the distribution of goods in West Africa. Historically they have played important roles in the political economy of Ghana. With the outbreak of AIDS these women, some of whom move far away from home sometimes for days for even weeks, stand the risk of being infected with HIV through their activities. Using a combination of methods including a survey, focus-group discussions and conversations with key informants; we examine how the trade is organized, the characteristics of the traders, and the risk factors that are likely to predispose them to contracting the AIDS virus. Itinerant women traders appear highly vulnerable, as women and as highly mobile people. This state of affairs, occasioned by the extremely difficult conditions in which the women work, is exploited for the sexual gratification of the men with whom they come into contact. The attempt to reduce the spread of AIDs through education has to target itinerant women traders at the points of transaction.

Keywords: *Commerce *Emigration and Immigration *HIV Infections/EPIDEMIOLOGY
971130
M97B1241

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