What do Sex Workers Need to Know About Coronavirus?

COVID-19 is a virus that is transmitted in similar ways to a cold. It can be contracted through contact with or inhalation of droplets we release via our mouths and noses when coughing, sneezing or speaking. It can also be contracted through touching shared surfaces like door handles, table tops, or ATM screens with our hands and then touching our eyes, nose, or mouth. From what we know at this stage, COVID-19 is not transmitted through blood. The risk of transmission through faeces, semen, vaginal fluid or urine is not yet known.

COVID-19 causes illness unlike any other cold or flu. The virus, although having low fatality risk for generally healthy people, has infected people of all ages and there have been cases of people under 40 without complicating conditions dying of the disease, including children. For people who are living with complicating health issues, the risk of death is much higher and those people should be considered to be more vulnerable to the disease. Some examples of complicating issues include heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, and low immunity such as those living with autoimmune disorders or HIV and chemotherapy patients.

The illness is not found more or less in people of certain racial backgrounds. Genetics does not appear to play a role. A person of Chinese, Italian, or Spanish background is no more or less at risk than you are. The virus does not discriminate, it is able to infect and be transmissible by all age groups, and is also for some carriers of the virus is asymptomatic.

 

 

Last Updated: 22 August 2021

 

Excerpt from: https://redbook.scarletalliance.org.au/covid-19/