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According to a study conducted by researchers at the University of East Anglia, communities that rely on fishing as their main source of income could be especially vulnerable to HIV. Up to 20 percent of fishing boat crews tested in Thailand in the late 1990s were HIV-positive, compared to the country's overall rate of 1.5 percent. Eight percent of adults in fishing villages in the Honduras had HIV, about four times the national average. Approximately one-quarter of fishing community residents on Uganda’s Lake Albert were HIV-positive in 1992, while the figure was only four percent in nearby farming villages. The report said subcultures of hypermasculinity and risk-taking, high levels of drug and alcohol abuse, and highly mobile populations were the characteristics of fishing communities that contributed to higher HIV rates. |