4249.1: Tuesday, October 23, 2001: 4:30 PM-6:00 PM | ||||
Panel Discussion Session | ||||
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| Child prostitution is a significant global problem: five million or more children are prostituted each year. These children are at high risk for many health problems including infectious diseases, such as STDs and HIV, pregnancy- and abortion-related complications, mental health problems, substance abuse, and violence, including rape. In addition, children born to prostituted children are at high risk for health problems, such as low birth weight. While nearly all reports on child prostitution acknowledge that these children are at high risk for these health problems, there is virtually no data on morbidity or mortality among prostituted children. In most locations, clinical services for prostituted children are either non-existent or inadequate. Since child prostitution is widely recognized as a gross violation of the rights of children, much of the work to address child prostitution is undertaken by human rights workers and local and international NGOs. Now the contributions of public health professionals are greatly needed to prevent child prostitution through identifying factors that contribute to child prostitution, effective strategies to prevent it, and morbidity and mortality associated with child prostitution. In addition, clinical services are needed to provide medical and mental health services to children until they can be removed from prostitution, and to provide services to children who have left prostitution. | ||||
| See individual abstracts for presenting author's disclosure statement. | ||||
| Learning Objectives: Refer to the individual abstracts for learning objectives | ||||
| Brian Willis, JD, MPH | ||||
| Recruitment of children into sex work: some risk factors, health consequences and programme interventions in South Asia Ruth Finney Hayward, PhD | ||||
| Healthcare needs and medical issues of young people engaged in prostitution Johanna Olson, MD, Curren Warf, MD | ||||
| International NGO efforts to combat child prostitution Carol Smolenski, MUP | ||||
| Sponsor: | APHA-International Human Rights Committee | |||
| Cosponsors: | Caucus on Refugee and Immigrant Health; Maternal and Child Health; Social Work | |||
| CE Credits: | CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing, Pharmacy, Social Work | |||