HIV soaring among Vietnam's sex workers

The authorities in Vietnam have released figures suggesting a big jump in the number of sex workers carrying HIV, the virus which can lead to AIDS.

The Social Affairs ministry says more than twenty per cent of prostitutes are infected with the virus, compared with fewer than three per cent three years ago.

The ministry says there are up to one-hundred-thousand Vietnamese women selling sex for a living, although independent estimates suggest the real figure could be six times as many.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service