Proportion of Venereal Disease Acquired from Prostitutes in Asia: a Comparison with France, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America

The prevalence of venereal disease in prostitutes has been discussed elsewhere (Willcox, 1960, 1961). It has been shewn that prostitutes are still heavily infected with venereal diseases. In the present paper data are considered relating to venereal disease in the population at large arising from prostitutes in a number of Asian countries and in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. One difficulty in assessing such data is that the definition of a prostitute may vary from country to country. Another is the usual absence of suitable controls. Kinsey, Pomeroy, and Martin (1948) have pointed out that venereal diseases are more frequently acquired by the less educated, who more often resort to prostitutes than do men of higher educational levels. While 74 per cent. of single men in the U.S.A. had had some intercourse with prostitutes by the age of 25, only 28 per cent. of single men of college level had done so. There is no sufficiently objective study to determine the place of prostitution in the spread of venereal disease, as compared with the spread of such diseases by girls of a lower social level who are not prostitutes. Until the total numbers of each in a population can be related to the male population at risk, and the cases of venereal diseases can be related to the number of exposures, this cannot be done. The present report, which is merely a collection ofknown data, makes no pretence to be such a study. Furthermore, venereal diseases are usually far more prevalent amongst troops, immigrants, and visitors than in the indigenous population. These persons rely very largely upon prostitutes. If a given population contains a relatively large number of such persons the proportion of cases of venereal