Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jun 10;37(1):385.
doi: 10.4102/sajid.v37i1.385. eCollection 2022.

Limited syphilis testing for key populations in Zimbabwe: A silent public health threat

Mathias Dzobo  1 , Tafadzwa Dzinamarira  1 , Grant Murewanhema  2 , Roda Madziva  3 , Helena Herrera  4 , Godfrey Musuka  5
Affiliations

Limited syphilis testing for key populations in Zimbabwe: A silent public health threat

Mathias Dzobo et al. S Afr J Infect Dis. .

Abstract

In this article, the authors discuss the problem of high prevalences of active syphilis amongst key populations (KPs) in Zimbabwe, in combination with low testing rates, partly because of a difficult legal and social environment for these populations. The article highlights the need to develop strategies to address the high prevalence of syphilis amongst KPs. The authors discuss requirements for addressing deficits in existing clinical services, predominantly primary care settings, in providing primary healthcare, including sexually transmitted infection (STI) management, to Zimbabwe's KP communities and utility of point-of-care testing and self-testing and other innovations to improve testing uptake.

Keywords: HIV; Zimbabwe; key populations; syphilis; testing.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Giacani L, Lukehart SA. The endemic treponematoses. Clin Microbiol Rev. 2014;27(1):89–115. 10.1128/CMR.00070-13 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Halatoko WA, Landoh DE, Saka B, et al. . Prevalence of syphilis among female sex workers and their clients in Togo in 2011. BMC Public Health. 2017;17(1):1–5. 10.1186/s12889-017-4134-x - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization . Assessment of country implementation of the WHO global health sector strategy for sexually transmitted infections (2016–2021): Results of a national survey. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2021.
    1. UNAIDS . AIDS info: Global data on HIV epidemiology and response 2020 [homepage on the Internet]. [cited 2021 Nov 21]. Available from: http://aidsinfo.unaids.org/
    1. Ministry of Health and Child Care (MOHCC) Zimbabwe . Zimbabwe population-based HIV impact assessment (ZIMPHIA) 2015–2016. Harare: Ministry of Health and Child Care; August 2019.

LinkOut - more resources