Kolkata : Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and bacterial vaginosis (BV), a common infection of the vagina, are widespread globally.
These conditions have important health consequences, including genital symptoms, pregnancy complications, infertility, enhanced HIV transmission, and psychosocial effects.
The World Health Organization estimated that, in 2012, there were 357 million new episodes of four curable STIs (chlamydia, gonorrhoea, syphilis, and trichomoniasis) and 417 million people had infection with herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2). Global estimates of BV occurrence have never been made.
The WHO Global Health Sector Strategy on STIs, 2016–2021 provides goals, targets, and priority actions for stemming the STI epidemic. As data on STI burden are critical for efforts to prevent, control, and manage STIs, the first strategic direction of the Global Strategy is to increase information, including STI prevalence estimates, for focused public health action.
Estimating the global burden of STIs is hampered by the limited availability of STI diagnostic testing and surveillance and a scarcity of high-quality published studies of STI prevalence in low- and middle-income countries.
Given these limitations, a WHO consultation highlighted the importance of exploring potential data available through clinical research studies and trial networks that gather baseline data on STIs, even when estimating STI prevalence is not the primary study objective.
In a study recently published in PLOS Medicine, investigators heeded this call to action by using combined data from 18 HIV prevention studies, including more than 37 000 women in sub-Saharan Africa, to estimate the prevalence of chlamydia, gonorrhoea, syphilis, trichomoniasis, HSV-2, and BV.
UNI
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