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The Harvard University Asia Center hosted a symposium in October 2010 focused on sex work and sexually transmitted infections in Asia, engaging a biosocial approach to promote sexual health in this region. Asia has an estimated 151 million cases of curable sexually transmitted infections (STIs; eg, syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia) each year, with commercial sex interactions playing a large role in ongoing transmission. Substantial human movement and migration, gender inequalities, and incipient medical and legal systems in many states stymie effective STI control in Asia. The articles in this supplement provide theoretical and empirical pathways to improving the sexual health of those who sell and purchase commercial sex in Asia. The unintended health consequences of various forms of regulating commercial sex are also reviewed, emphasizing the need to carefully consider the medical and public health consequences of new and existing policies and laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expanding sexually transmitted infection (STI) epidemics in many parts of Asia increase the importance of effective human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/STI prevention programs for female sex workers. Designing sex worker health research and programs demands a well-stated conceptual approach, especially when one is interpreting the relationship between local policy environments and sex worker health. However, the core principles of the 2 most common conceptual approaches used in sex worker health programs--abolitionism and empowerment--have frequently divergent assumptions and implications. The abolitionist approach sees major aspects of the sex industry as fundamentally coercive and exploitative of women and supports dismantling all or parts of the sex sector. The empowerment approach strengthens sex workers' agency and rights in order to build collective self-efficacy and have women invested in implementing their own HIV/STI prevention programs. This review compares these approaches using implication analysis and empirical cases from Asia. The misperception of an unresolvable gap between the 2 approaches ignores common ground that forms the basis of a new behavioral-structural conceptual framework. Explicitly accounting for the interaction between female sex worker behaviors and larger structures and policies, a behavioral-structural approach may provide a solid foundation for sex work research and programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]