ReviewProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2023
Mapping the number of female sex workers in countries across sub-Saharan Africa.
Review in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Behavioral and Structural Interventions for PrEP Adherence Among Young Female Sex Workers from Western Kenya.AIDS and behavior · 2026Trial
- The illegal market for sex in the United States: Insights from economic research.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Article
- Syndemic Synergy of HPV, HIV, and HSV-2 for Oncogenic HPV Replication in Female Sex Workers.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2025Article
- HIV transmission in sub-Saharan Africa: excessive focus on heterosexual vaginal intercourse.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Temporal Trends, Health Inequalities, and Risk Factors in the Global, Regional, and National Burden of Sexually Transmitted Infections Among Women of Child-Bearing Age (1990-2021): Analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study.International journal of women's health · 2025Article
- Article
- Jitegemee (rely on yourself): a multi-phase process of co-creating a personal savings intervention with female sex workers in western Kenya to reduce their HIV risk.BMC public health · 2024Article
- The effect on HIV transmission and cost-effectiveness of programmes for female sex workers in East, Central, and Southern Africa: a modelling study.The Lancet. Global health · 2024Article
- Population size, HIV prevalence, and antiretroviral therapy coverage among key populations in sub-Saharan Africa: collation and synthesis of survey data, 2010-23.The Lancet. Global health · 2024Article
- Leveraging Routinely Collected Program Data to Inform Extrapolated Size Estimates for Key Populations in Namibia: Small Area Estimation Study.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2024Article
- Comparison of Empirically Derived and Model-Based Estimates of Key Population HIV Incidence and the Distribution of New Infections by Population Group in Sub-Saharan Africa.Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999) · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 9 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Female sex workers (FSW) are affected by individual, network, and structural risks, making them vulnerable to poor health and well-being. HIV prevention strategies and local community-based programs can rely on estimates of the number of FSW to plan and implement differentiated HIV prevention and treatment services. However, there are limited systematic assessments of the number of FSW in countries across sub-Saharan Africa to facilitate the identification of prevention and treatment gaps. Here we provide estimated population sizes of FSW and the corresponding uncertainties for almost all sub-national areas in sub-Saharan Africa. We first performed a literature review of FSW size estimates and then developed a Bayesian hierarchical model to synthesize these size estimates, resolving competing size estimates in the same area and producing estimates in areas without any data. We estimated that there are 2.5 million (95% uncertainty interval 1.9 to 3.1) FSW aged 15 to 49 in sub-Saharan Africa. This represents a proportion as percent of all women of childbearing age of 1.1% (95% uncertainty interval 0.8 to 1.3%). The analyses further revealed substantial differences between the proportions of FSW among adult females at the sub-national level and studied the relationship between these heterogeneities and many predictors. Ultimately, achieving the vision of no new HIV infections by 2030 necessitates dramatic improvements in our delivery of evidence-based services for sex workers across sub-Saharan Africa.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.