STD Screening in a Public Family Planning Clinic in Brazil - Revista Brasileira de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia
Purpose: to analyze the prevalence of gonorrhea, Chlamydia, syphilis and HIV among patients attending a family planning clinic regarding presence of STD symptoms and risk behaviors. Methods: women between the ages of 18 and 30 years who attended a public family planning clinic in Brazil were tested for gonorrhea and Chlamydia using the urine-based DNA amplification test (LCR, Abbott), and a blood test for syphilis (VDRL) and HIV. All participants were asked questions about their health care seeking behavior, the presence of STD symptoms, and about the STD risk behaviors. Results: Chlamydia was found in 11.4%, syphilis in 2%, gonorrhea in 0.5% and HIV was confirmed positive in 3%. Approximately 61% of the women who were infected with Chlamydia had no symptoms. Women who never used condoms had much higher risks for STD than women who used them always or most of the time. Although not statistically significant, there was a trend for women who never used any contraceptive to have a higher risk for STD than women who used some method of contraception (p=0.09). However, when examining separately each contraceptive, none of them alone offered protection against STD. Very few women reported problems related to the use of alcohol or illegal drugs. But among those who did report such use, the risk for STD was very high, particularly regarding marijuana use. Conclusions: the most significant findings in our study were the high STD rates among a population of women generally reporting low-risk health behaviors. Based upon our findings it is crucial to offer STD/HIV screening to all women under 30 years who visit public family planning clinics. Without screening all women, more than half of the infected women will never be identified or treated. Given the new sensitive and specific technology available to screen for Chlamydia, gonorrhea, and HIV, and the ease of collecting urine specimens for diagnosis, more efforts should be directed to surveillance of populations at risk, so that current clinical practice may reflect the true risk of the populations.
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Purpose: to analyze the prevalence of gonorrhea, Chlamydia, syphilis and HIV among patients attending a family planning clinic regarding presence of STD symptoms and risk behaviors. Methods: women between the ages of 18 and 30 years who attended a public family planning clinic in Brazil were tested for gonorrhea and Chlamydia using the urine-based DNA amplification test (LCR, Abbott), and a blood test for syphilis (VDRL) and HIV. All participants were asked questions about their health care seeking behavior, the presence of STD symptoms, and about the STD risk behaviors. Results: Chlamydia was found in 11.4%, syphilis in 2%, gonorrhea in 0.5% and HIV was confirmed positive in 3%. Approximately 61% of the women who were infected with Chlamydia had no symptoms. Women who never used condoms had much higher risks for STD than women who used them always or most of the time. Although not statistically significant, there was a trend for women who never used any contraceptive to have a higher risk for STD than women who used some method of contraception (p=0.09). However, when examining separately each contraceptive, none of them alone offered protection against STD. Very few women reported problems related to the use of alcohol or illegal drugs. But among those who did report such use, the risk for STD was very high, particularly regarding marijuana use. Conclusions: the most significant findings in our study were the high STD rates among a population of women generally reporting low-risk health behaviors. Based upon our findings it is crucial to offer STD/HIV screening to all women under 30 years who visit public family planning clinics. Without screening all women, more than half of the infected women will never be identified or treated. Given the new sensitive and specific technology available to screen for Chlamydia, gonorrhea, and HIV, and the ease of collecting urine specimens for diagnosis, more efforts should be directed to surveillance of populations at risk, so that current clinical practice may reflect the true risk of the populations.
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