Achievements and implications of hiv prevention programme among female sex workers: a systematic evaluation of haf ii project in bayelsa state, Nigeria

Heavy presence of Female Sex Workers (FSWs) in Bayelsa State due to economic hardship, alongside the high prevalence rate made it a priority state for HIV prevention. Intervention to curb the spread of HIV among sex workers is therefore needed to ameliorate this problem. This paper presents the achievements and implications of HIV and AIDS fund (HAF) II project among FSWs in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. This intervention was carried out among FSWs in Bayelsa State. The estimated sample size was 3000 FSWs and quota-sampling technique was used for their selection. Three civil society organizations were engaged and funded under the HAF II II project. The minimum prevention package intervention (MPPI) was used for the implementation of this project and data collected were entered into DHIS2 and analyzed using Microsoft Excel. A total of 113 community dialogues were held in this intervention and 326 influencers participated. The number of peers registered during the intervention were 5,564 and out of a total of 336,478 condoms required for this intervention only 158,654 (47.2%) were distributed. A total of 2768 (49.7%) of the registered peers were reached with all the three stages of MPPI and 3069 (55.2%) were reached with HIV counseling and testing (HCT). Among these, 123 (4.0%) were tested positive to HIV. Many of the registered peers were missing out in HCT and condoms distributed were grossly inadequate. The health of FSWs must be seen as important to the overall process of HIV prevention. Income generating activities should also be included in future similar programmes.