Document Type

Post-Print

Publication Date

10-2014

Subjects

Indians of South America -- Amazon River Region -- Health and hygiene, AIDS (Disease) -- Amazon River Region, HIV (Viruses) -- Amazon River Region, Diseases -- Risk factors

Abstract

We examined structural factors—social, political, economic, and environmental—that increase vulnerability to HIV among indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon. Indigenous adults belonging to 12 different ethnic groups were purposively recruited in four Amazonian river ports and 16 indigenous villages. Qualitative data revealed a complex set of structural factors that give rise to environments of risk where health is constantly challenged. Ferryboats that cross Amazonian rivers are settings where unprotected sex—including transactional sex between passengers and boat crew and commercial sex work—often take place. Population mobility and mixing also occurs in settings like the river docks, mining sites, and other resource extraction camps, where heavy drinking and unprotected sex work are common. Multilevel, combination prevention strategies that integrate empirically based interventions with indigenous knowledge are urgently needed, not only to reduce vulnerability to HIV transmission, but also to eliminate the structural determinants of indigenous people’s health.

Description

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Qualitative Health Research. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Qualitative Health Research, 23(9), 1240-50.

DOI

10.1177/1049732313502129

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/24060

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