Frequenting bars associated with increased sexual & HIV risk, & HSV-2 infection among South African young women

Harvard Pop Center Bell Fellow Molly Rosenberg, PhD, and Pop Center faculty member Kathleen Kahn, PhD, are co-authors of a study published in PLoS One that found that for young South African women, there was an association between visiting bars, especially when alcohol was consumed, and having more sexual partners, unprotected sex, transactional sex, and Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2 (HSV-2) infection.  The study suggests that sexual health interventions targeted at bars might be an effective way to reach adolescents at high risk for sexually transmitted infections like HIV and HSV-2.