The Socio-Demographic Characteristics of the Clients of Female Sex Workers and their Perspectives, Behaviours and Attitude on HIV and AIDS: A Questionnaire Based Survey from Pokhara, Nepal.

BACKGROUND: The clients of Female Sex Workers (FSWs) have been represented from different socio-demographic backgrounds and their risk behaviour depends upon their learning skills and attitudes and its impacts on practice. OBJECTIVE: The general objective of this study was to find the socio-demographic characteristics, background, knowledge, behaviour, and the attitude on STIs, HIV and AIDS of the clients of female sex workers. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This questionnaire based, cross sectional study was conducted on 109 clients of FSWs during the time period from January 2010 to July 2010 in Pokhara (submetropolitan city of the Kaski district), Nepal. The locations were the Baglung Bus Park, Lakeside and Mahendrapool. RESULT: Among the 109 respondents, the mininum and the maximum age were 18 and 50 years. According to the religion-wise distribution, 77.1% of the respondents were Hindus, 10.1% were Buddhists, 8.3% were Christians, 1% were Muslims and 3.7% were from other religions. 67.9% of the respondents were tested for HIV at least once, whereas nearly one third (32.1%) of the respondents were never tested for HIV. 49.5% of the respondents answered that there was no difference between HIV and AIDS. Among the respondents, 89.9% respondents knew how to be safe from STIs and the HIV infections and 99.1% knew about HIV and AIDS. CONCLUSION: HIV and AIDS is a cross cutting issue in the present situation rather than a health issue. One of the most at risk groups is the clients of female workers who frequently have risk behaviours like having sex with female sex workers. The sexual behaviour among these clients depends upon their attitude, knowledge and perception, which also influence several internal and external factors. In our study, the clients of the female sex workers had some extent of knowledge about the condom, sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS. They were made aware on these by different organizations who were working in the field of HIV and AIDS, but still they intended to practise unsafe sex with the female sex workers.

Pattern and trend of deliberate self-harm in western Nepal.

Acts of deliberate self-harm (DSH) not only affect the people directly involved, but also have grave psychological and social impact on the family and community. In the present study, a cohort of 173 cases of DSH reported from April 2002 to March 2005 was retrospectively analyzed, by perusing the medicolegal register maintained by the Emergency Department at the Western Regional Hospital, Pokhara in the Western Development Region of Nepal. The data were entered and analyzed using SPSS Version 10.1. More than two-thirds of total cases were females. About 60% of cases were observed in the age group of 15-24 years. Poisoning (89.6%) was the most preferred method of deliberate self-harm. Organophosphate pesticides were consumed in nearly two-thirds of the poisoning cases. The majority of cases were reported during the months of May to July and had occurred during the last quarter of the day. More than a twofold increase was observed in the frequency of cases during the 3-year study period. The said observations were compared and contrasted with the available literature across the globe. The presentation is concluded by highlighting the limitations encountered in Nepal and the scope to overcome the same.

Morbidity profile, prescribing patterns and working of the community drug programme in a health post in Western Nepal.

The study was carried out at the Naudanda Health Post over a two-month period (July 15, 2000, to September 15, 2000). The objectives were to obtain information on the demography of patients, morbidity, drug-prescribing patterns and the working of the Community Drug Programme. Acute respiratory infections were the most common illness. Paracetamol was most commonly prescribed and 80.6% of the drugs prescribed were essential drugs.