Sharon Steinmann - Photojournalist

AIDS in Honduras

HIV is the primary cause of death among women of childbearing age in Honduras. With over five percent of its population infected, San Pedro Sula, the country's second largest city, has emerged as Central America’s AIDS capital. Lesly Montoya is HIV positive and supports her four children and boyfriend by selling her body. Their three-year-old son Edgar Montoya is also HIV positive. 

  •  Lesly Montoya, whi is HIV positive, gets ready to go to work as a sex worker on the streets of San Pedro Sula, Honduras as her boyfriend Wilson Martinez looks on.
  • Lesly Montoya and fellow sex worker Dilcia Mejia, survey the street on a slow Wednesday. Sex workers are seen at any hour on the streets of San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Most are single mothers who find it difficult if not impossible to make ends meet at another job.
  •  Lesly Montoya with a client at the hotel where she works as a day-time sex worker in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
  • Lesly Montoya cries as her doctor explains that she must begin permanently taking antiretroviral drugs due to her lowered t-cell count. She gets treatment at Mario Catarino Rivas public hospital in San Pedro Sula which runs an AIDS clinic funded by international money provided through Global Fund.
  • Lesly Montoya's neighbors take advantage of a rainy season downpour to clean the corridor of their rooming complex in downtown San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
  • Lesly Montoya, 30, cherishes the times she can spend her day with her children instead of working a 10-hour day on the streets. At left is four-year-old Siloe Cruz Martinez Montoya and two-month-old Wilson Estuardo Martinez Montoya is at right.
  • Wilson Martinez, 22, pins down his son Edgar Montoya, 3, as his mother gives him one of his several doses of medication a day in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Edgar was diagnosed as HIV positive when he was six months old. {quote}I'm not going to tell you I've been a good mother, but I'd rather go hungry than let this one get sick,{quote} said Lesly Montoya. HIV is the primary cause of death among women of childbearing age in Honduras. With over five percent of its population infected, San Pedro Sula, the country's second largest city, has emerged as Central America’s AIDS capital. Lesly Montoya is HIV positive and supports her four children and boyfriend by selling her body.
  • Lesly Montoya attends an evangelical church service in the neighborhood of her older sister, Reina Grande, 42, front, in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Lesly and her boyfriend Wilson Martinez brought their two-month-old son Wilson to be blessed by the minister. Reina is the only family member Lesly has told about her HIV status.
  • Lesly Montoya, 30, and her boyfriend of four years, Wilson Rene Martinez Ramos, 22, share a light moment as their two-month-old son Wilson Estuardo Martinez Montoya fusses in their San Pedro Sula, Honduras home.
  • Lesly Montoya laughs during an educational bingo game at an HIV/AIDS support group meeting she attends occasionally in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. The group is funded by the Episcopalian church and provides counseling and medication as an alternative to the public hospital. Lesly attended the meeting a week after her doctor told her her t-cell count had lowered and she'd have to start antiretroviral drugs for the first time since her pregnancy.
  • Lesly Montoya rests against the outside wall of the hotel where she brings her clients in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
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