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NEW DELHI (AP) - The international trafficking of women to work as prostitutes is likely a key factor in the spread of HIV across South Asia, according to a study released Wednesday that found high rates of the virus in Nepali girls and woman who worked in Indian brothels.
The study in the Journal of the American Medical Association examined 287 Nepali women and girls who had been trafficked into Indian brothels and returned to Nepal between 1997 and 2005. It found that some 40 percent of them were HIV positive, with the figure rising to 60 percent among those who had been trafficked before the age of 15.
"The high rates of HIV documented herein support concerns that sex trafficking may be a significant factor in the expansion of the South Asian HIV epidemic," said the report on the study run by Jay G. Silverman of the Harvard School of Public Health
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