Sex Workers

Natural disasters related to climate change are on the rise in California, but the impacts of climate-related events on healthcare delivery and client engagement in care are not well understood. The critical care needs of those receiving HIV, STI, and harm reduction services are of particular importance; disruptions to services pose an immediate threat to […]

On November 10, 2021, the California HIV/AIDS Policy Research Centers (CHPRC) and the statewide End the Epidemics coalition (ETE) convened a community meeting to discuss these challenges and to identify policy and research priorities for improving HIV, viral hepatitis, STI, and harm reduction services. The event brought together over a hundred advocates, researchers, public health […]

This policy brief is intended to help health care providers and patients better understand how the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) Grade A recommendation for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and Senate Bill (SB) 159 impact PrEP access in California. The policy brief also outlines the complaint process if a health plan is not in compliance with the […]

Our research center conducted a qualitative study to understand patient, provider and other key stakeholder experiences as clinics rapidly shifted to telehealth care during the COVID-19 pandemic. This brief report outlines the major findings and recommendations from the study.

The COVID-19 pandemic rapidly shifted how routine medical care was delivered and disrupted all aspects of everyday life, including HIV social and medical services. Our Policy Center conducted a qualitative study to understand how organizations serving people living with or at risk for HIV and their clients were affected by the pandemic as well as […]

On June 4, 2021, the Southern California HIV/AIDS Policy Research Center (SCHPRC) hosted a launchmeeting for San Diego County, organized on the heels of a regional listening session led by the NIHOffice of AIDS Research. During this launch event, we were able to focus on policy research needs in San Diego County and to engage […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has renewed concerns about social and structural factors related to health disparities, including those related to HIV. The Lens tool is a partial response to an urgent need to understand whether elevated risk of COVID-19 disease and mortality among persons living with HIV (PLWH) results from related risk behaviors, a higher burden […]

On this International Sex Worker Rights Day, we examine the criminalization of commercial sex trade and frameworks seeking to regulate it across the globe. Preventing the spread of disease, including sexually transmitted infections and HIV, are powerful levers for justifying the existence of such laws. This brief seeks to answer the question—what is the evidence […]

A summary of California laws related to HIV/AIDS, intended to provide an overview of the current state of the law as of March 2019. This summary covers the state of the law on topics such as HIV testing and linkages to care, privacy and confidentiality, criminalization, discrimination, needle and syringe exchange programs, and comprehensive sex […]

The vast majority of all HIV-specific criminal incidents in California involve people engaged in sex work or those suspected of engaging in sex work. A new report finds that women—and Black women, in particular—are the most disproportionately impacted by California’s sex work laws, both as they apply to people living with HIV and people not […]