The ease of disease

[Contrarian]

From the West today...


Jump in sexually transmitted diseases

Jane Hammond, The West Australian July 13, 2012,

WA has one of the highest rates of sexually transmitted infections in the nation, with the rates for chlamydia and gonorrhoea about 30 per cent higher than the national average, figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show.

The figures for 2011 show that WA was second only to the Northern Territory in the rates of infection for the two most common forms of STIs.

WA's syphilis infection rate was above the national average but below that of Queensland, NSW, Victoria and the Northern Territory.

The rates of HIV infection were lower in WA last year than those in NSW, Victoria and Queensland but above the rates in South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory.

The head of FPAWA's sexual health services, Steve Blackwell, said the high rates in WA may be a reflection of the push for chlamydia testing, particularly among young people.

"We recommend that all sexually active young people get tested and that they practise safe sex," Mr Blackwell said.

"The figures show we still have a way to go."

In 2011, chlamydia was the most frequently reported notifiable condition in Australia with 79,833 new cases for people aged 15 and over.

There were 435 cases reported per 100,000.

The rates of chlamydia were highest in those aged 15 to 29, with the group accounting for 82 per cent of all new cases reported last year.

The chlamydia rate for both sexes has more than tripled over the past 10 years

 

[Happy2]

And if you split the numbers up between Indigenous and non indigenous the numbers are even more skewed

 

[Contrarian]

Indigenous or otherwise, considering the small size of WA's population vis a vis the Eastern States; to have the second highest rate of disease is still something quite extraordinary.

 

[Sherry]

Wow that's scary!! I am always amazed at how many people say they have never gone for a STD check up. Even more shocked at how many people don't practise safe sex. Still get clients asking for natural oral!! Crazy

 

[Jazzmine]

""The rates of chlamydia were highest in those aged 15 to 29, with the group accounting for 82 per cent of all new cases reported last year.""

We're they age group that was given Sex Ed in schools!! Come on kids!! Although in saying that, I think we do need better education on how to correctly use condoms, something that makes it fun and stops people thinking they're a mood killer!~! Rather a mood killer than an STD any day!!

 

[Contrarian]

Sex worker reveals industry truth
Alex McKinnon
Geraldton Newspapers
February 17, 2012, 9:52 am


THINKSTOCK ©
Prostitutes are having sex without condoms or appropriate protection more than 200 times a day in Geraldton, according to a veteran sex worker who spoke exclusively to The Guardian this week.

Julie (not her real name) said customers who were largely fl yin, fl y-out resource industry workers now regularly demand multiple forms of sexual intercourse and oral sex without condoms, dental dams or protective sanitary lubricant, and all for $80 an hour.

According to investigations and interviews conducted by The Guardian, more than 90 per cent of the business is being conducted by Chinese, Thai and Korean girls.

It is estimated there are more than 20 Asian girls working in Geraldton today.

Based on the volume of sex work, the turnover is estimated at between $15,000 and $25,000 per day, with the bulk of the profits going to pimps.

Julie said the Asian girls had no identification and she believed they were trafficked in and out of Geraldton on two to three week rotations, from the Gold Coast and other Eastern States locations.

“I have run into them a few times and sometimes they try to run interference with my business,” she said.

“I picked up two of them late last year walking home from a job they had been thrown out of in Waggrakine.

“They were trying to walk all the way home to Mahomets Flats. They had no identification and spoke no English.

“I take all the proper precautions and I look after myself, but these girls all use the same razors, they would all have hepatitis and the blokes don’t care.

The level of education of the men is frightening.

“They are becoming demanding, they want everything with no protection.

“They don’t even understand that the mouth is one of the worst areas for catching disease, and they think they are special, that the girls don’t do it for other guys. Well they need to wake up.

“They think it is okay to hammer a girl for 30 minutes for $80, they expect it, and if they don’t get it, they get angry.”

Julie, who charges up to $280 per hour, has round-the-clock protection and manages her own operation.

During our interview she received her 84th phone call for the day.

She explained to the man inquiring that she did not kiss on the mouth and would not have sex without a condom.

The man was not interested. He knew he could call another agency and get what he wanted for a third of what Julie was charging. He hung up.

“There you go, I get that more and more now,” Julie said, shaking her head.

“And the other scary thing is that I am now getting calls from Nigerian and Somali men wanting to run girls here in Geraldton.

“These girls are also making fake bookings for me to try to stop me getting their business.

It is just out of control here and nobody is doing anything about it. There is no help either for these girls.”

Julie said there was no way the Asian girls could be making any money at $80 an hour.

“It is a $20 fare each way for the taxi, then accommodation,” she said.

“These girls are bonded, they are in a master-slave relationship.

I feel sorry for them, they are uneducated and they can’t speak English.”

Julie said it was mostly men running the women now.

“I look after my customers properly, I treat them well and they treat me well,” she said.

“When they order these girls they turn up looking nothing like the pictures they have been shown. ”

Julie said the only way to make the industry safe was to allow brothels to open officially and under police supervision with a proper register of the girls.

“Then these girls can be safe, the brothel operators would have to be licensed like they are in Perth or Port Hedland,” she said.

The law is very grey in regard to police being able to bring the booming trade in Geraldton under control.

Mike Hayter, a lawyer in Geraldton with Mid West Lawyers, said there was presently a Prostitution Bill 2011 in the Legislative Assembly with the second reading on November 3, 2011.

“Briefly, the purpose of the Bill is to prohibit prostitution in residential areas with strict licensing requirements,” he said.

“Operators, managers and self-employed prostitutes will need to comply with strict licensing requirements.

“A manager is defined in the Bill as simply being a person who manages a prostitution business.

“There is no reason for us to conclude that a manager or operator of an escort agency or prostitution business cannot be a male — and this is said without taking into account the fact that for a number of years the police have operated a containment policy that is not the subject of legislation.”

Julie said she was registered with the Geraldton police as a sex worker.

She does not believe any other sex workers are registered.

Geraldton police detective Tony Longhorn said they used to keep a register but it was no longer current.

ALEX MCKINNON

 

[Contrarian]

From the Sunday Times

FIFO health concern


An inquiry into WA's FIFO workforce has been told that boredom and stress often led to risk-taking behaviour and excessive drug and alcohol abuse when FIFO workers returned home.

WA'S growing fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) workforce is putting a strain on health services, with sexually transmitted disease, alcohol and drugs, risk-taking behaviour, stress and family breakdowns having major impacts.

Australian Medical Association WA president David Mountain told a federal parliamentary hearing into FIFO practices in Perth today that a dearth of healthcare workers - who faced the same isolation and cost-of-living pressures as others in remote mining communities - was compounding the problem.

``Given the fact it's incredibly hard to attract people to regional and remote Western Australia already, losing any further (medical) workforce in those centres would be catastrophic,'' Dr Mountain told the House of Representatives committee hearing, chaired by independent MP Tony Windsor.

The AMA said in an earlier statement that more than 80 per cent of 290 doctors surveyed wanted mining and resource companies to contribute more to health care in local communities - directly or through increased taxes - as they were having an inflationary effect on health and other services.

RESOURCE sector representatives have defended fly-in fly-out practices today by urging the Australian Medical Association to "do some solid research".

``The fly-in, fly-out federal parliamentary inquiry should seriously consider how mining companies can make a special contribution to health services in rural and remote areas,'' the association said in its statement.

Dr Mountain told the hearing that boredom and stress often led to risk-taking behaviour and excessive drug and alcohol abuse when FIFO workers returned home, while their partners were left as ``basically single parents'' each time they went back to work on long shifts.

``Often they are single parents who then have to deal with a partner who comes down and wants to party hard for the week that they're down,'' he said.

``They have to pick up the pieces again.''

The disruptive lifestyle often led to marriage breakdowns and stress-related illnesses.

``Almost universally, people have noticed that FIFO workers have increased levels of mental stress and mental illnesses ... quite significant increases in alcohol and other drugs ... significant rates of familial disharmony - relationship breakdowns - and significant rates of high-risk behaviour,'' Dr Mountain told the hearing.

Rates of sexually transmitted disease among FIFO workers and in some small communities where they were based were at ``epidemic proportions''.

``It's very common that you're dealing with people who have caught something while they've been away in Southeast Asia,'' Dr Mountain said.

Another health issue unique to FIFO families was the unusually high rate of induced births to fit in with rosters that could see partners away for weeks at a time.

Dr Mountain said the FIFO model was putting a huge strain on health services around Western Australia.

``With the number of FIFO workers continuing to increase strongly, the impacts they are having on health services across the state are enormous,'' he said.

``These impacts are felt most severely by smaller remote towns and communities that already struggle to provide and maintain health and other services.''

But even medical practitioners were impacted by rising costs and runaway real estate prices that were making it unviable in some cases to stay in mining towns.

Dr Mountain said it was becoming increasingly more common for doctors themselves to adopt the FIFO model of being based in a major city and flying to remote communities