Saturday Star reports that for a long time health professionals and caregivers have known that South African sex workers suffer from high rates of depression and post-traumatic stress, but no one knew the extent of the problem.  

Now a new study has provided a snapshot of a group of sex workers who work in Soweto.  The study, which appeared in the journal, Plos One, found that more than two-thirds of the sex workers in the sample suffered depression.  Of that same sample, 39.6% showed symptoms for post- traumatic distress disorder (PTSD).  The cause of this, according to one of the authors of the paper, Jenny Coetzee, was due to the high levels of violence they experienced.  “You are going to find very high levels of trauma and depression - and with that comes high levels of drinking,” said Coetzee.  The researchers focused on 508 sex workers across Soweto in a study that took place over seven months during 2016.  Of that total, only two of the participants weren’t black and 16 were migrants.  What the study further revealed was that two-thirds of the sex workers went hungry regularly and 50% of them were binge drinkers.  Only 14% claimed they had never been a victim of violence.  The Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (Sweat) said dealing with mental health issues among sex workers would require a multi-disciplined approach.

• Read this report by Shaun Smillie in full at Saturday Star

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page