Scientists appreciated the influence of Covid on the cost of sex services in Kenya in the first year of the pandemic

Sex with a condom has risen in price from 8 to 10 dollars, without it - from 10 to $ 12

Researchers from the Pennsylvania University of Philadelphia and the Kenyan non -governmental organization IRDO described how the Pandemia of the Coronavirus influenced sex in exchange for a fee. And also how its value has changed.

The study was devoted to sex for money that women with a high risk of HIV infection in rural areas of Kenya. It was published in the Scientific Journal of the American Medical Association (Jama Network Open).

In their work, scientists analyzed the data received from women as a result of another study - devoted to the impact of testing on HIV to spread this virus. References of women began in 2017-2018. They were asked questions every six months - until March 2020. They also conducted several more additional polls: from May to June 2020, in November 2020 and February 2021.

In total, 2090 cisgender , HIV-negative residents of Kenya took part in the polls, who at the time of the beginning of the pandemic were from 23 to 32 years old (the average age of the participants 27 years) and who had sex with two or more men over the past four weeks. 96% of the participants (1980 people) reported that by the time the study began, they had sex for a fee in one form or another.

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and IRDO studied the weekly income of the participants, the hours of work (meaning ordinary work), a monthly number of sexual partners and partners who paid for sex, as well as the cost of sex services. Scientists compared the data obtained during the surveys in the first months of the pandemic and closer to the end of the first pandemic year, with the data that was obtained six months before the beginnings of coronavirus.

The authors of the work found that in the first year of the pandemic there was a decrease in the number of sexual partners who paid for sex, and, accordingly, the level of revenue of the survey participants was reduced. Researchers have brought the following numbers.

• Six months before the pandemic, respondents from Kenya had sex for money for a month on average with one sexual partner. Whereas at the beginning of the first year of pandemia this indicator was halved, and by the end of 2020 it approached the dopandemic level-an average of 0.9 partners per month.
• Sex with a condom to the spread of coronavirus on average cost $ 8, during the pandemic - 10.2 dollars (that is, 21.5% more expensive). The average cost of sex without a condom in a pandemic grew from $ 10.4 to $ 12.4 (plus 16%).
• In turn, the average weekly income of women who had sex for money, six months before the pandemic amounted to 10.9 dollars. At the beginning of the first year, Pandemia decreased to $ 5.6-and by the end of 2020 it increased to $ 9.4.

Researchers note that such intersecting vulnerability factors as poverty, HIV and Covid-19 should be taken into account as part of the Covid Council Policy in Low Estimates of the Population.

The molecular biologist, the author of the book “Virus who broke the planet: why SARS-COV-2, drew attention to this study, Irina Yakutenko, SARS-COV-2, is so special.

“It seems to me that this work perfectly shows that no world around the world, the mutual understanding of all people and other sugar syrup in the nearest eons is expected. Because people in the conditional West and most of all other people literally live on different planets, ”Yakutenko wrote on her Facebook .