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. 2010 Jul;31(2):104-8.
doi: 10.4103/0253-7184.74998.

Pattern of sexually transmitted infections and performance of syndromic management against etiological diagnosis in patients attending the sexually transmitted infection clinic of a tertiary care hospital

Shilpee Choudhry  1 , V G Ramachandran, Shukla Das, S N Bhattacharya, Narendra Singh Mogha
Affiliations

Pattern of sexually transmitted infections and performance of syndromic management against etiological diagnosis in patients attending the sexually transmitted infection clinic of a tertiary care hospital

Shilpee Choudhry et al. Indian J Sex Transm Dis AIDS. 2010 Jul.

Abstract

Background and objectives: The availability of baseline information on the epidemiology of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and other associated risk behaviors is essential for designing, implementing, and monitoring successful targeted interventions. Also, continuous analysis of risk assessment and prevalence-based screening studies are necessary to evaluate and monitor the performance of syndromic management. The aim of the present study was to document the pattern of common STIs and to evaluate the performance of syndromic case management against their laboratory diagnoses.

Materials and methods: Three hundred consecutive patients who attended the STI clinic of a tertiary care hospital at Delhi, with one or more of the complaints as enunciated by WHO in its syndromic approach for the diagnosis of STIs, were included as subjects. Detailed history, demographical data, and clinical features were recorded and screened for common STIs by standard microbiological methods.

Results: The mean age was 24 years and most of the male patients were promiscuous and had contact with commercial sex workers (CSWs 63.9%). Majority came with the complaint of genital discharge (63 males; 54 females) followed by genital ulcer (61 males; 30 females). Genital herpes accounted for the maximum number of STI (86/300) followed by syphilis (71/300). The sensitivity of genital discharge syndrome (GDS) was high for Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlamydia trachomatis (96% and 91%, respectively) while specificity was low (76% and 72%, respectively). The sensitivity of genital ulcer syndrome for herpes simplex virus-2 (HSV-2) and Treponema pallidum was 82.65% and 81.2%, respectively, while specificity reached 99% approximately.

Conclusions: Viral STIs constitute the major burden of the STI clinic and enhance the susceptibility of an individual to acquire or transmit HIV through sexual contact. Syndromic algorithms have some shortcomings, and they need to be periodically reviewed and adapted to the epidemiological patterns of STI in a given setting.

Keywords: Genital discharge syndrome; HIV; genital ulcer syndrome; genital wart; sexually transmitted infection; syndromic approach.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None declared

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