The federal government has awarded the University of California Los Angeles $193,989 in taxpayer funds to study skill-building as HIV prevention for male sex workers in Peru. The grant was issued by the National Institute of Mental Health, a part of the National Institutes of Health, and proposes “a pilot study for a group that has been neglected in the Peruvian HIV epidemic, namely male sex workers (fletes).” Men having sex with men in Peru have a “high burden of HIV” at 10 to 15 percent, compared to male sex workers, who have a 23 percent prevalence, researchers found. …