Les clients de TS sont considérés comme un groupe à risque de VIH et aussi agiraient comme un « pont de transmission » entre les TS et les femmes de la population générale. En dépit de leurs comportements sexuels à risque, les clients de TS ont été rarement étudiés.

As pointed out by Couture et al., patrons of sex workers are at high risk for contracting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) /sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and contribute to the spread of infection in the general population through unprotected sex. In fact, clients are considered a bridge population, potentially transmitting infection between the sex workers and women from the general population. This transmission makes the wives, girlfriends, and casual sex partners of sex worker patrons especially vulnerable to HIV infection.