2 million pregnant women, mostly in low and middle-income countries, have syphilis in pregnancy resulting in adverse outcomes in 69% of cases. Given known low costs of screening and treatment, the figures are appalling. Is it really lack of evidence for the effectiveness of interventions that is holding things back? Yet one can only support […]
Category: STI prevention and surveillance
No rise in UK Chlamydia; but disquieting trends for MSM
The annual report of the UK Health Protection Agency (17th June, 2011) offers a concise and accessible statistical overview of recent trends in STIs (not including HIV/AIDS), as well as details of the UK Chlamydia screening programme and the recent epidemic of lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV). The overall picture suggests a slight decline (1%) in STIs […]
The right way forward for global HIV/AIDS response?
Almost thirty years exactly after the first official AIDS diagnosis on 1st June 1981, and 10 years since the landmark UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS, member countries meet once again to review the global response to HIV AIDS at the UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on HIV/ AIDS from 8–10 June in New […]
Should boys have HPV vaccination?
3rd February saw the publication of the results of a 4 year study to ascertain the efficacy of HPV vaccine for boys against HPV strains 6, 11, 16 and 18 . The sponsors were Merck, producers of the HPV vaccine, Gardasil. The double-blind study included 4,065 healthy men aged 16-26 in 18 countries. Efficacy was […]
New STI surveillance data in England
STI surveillance in England has taken a major step forward with the first publication of STI data based on GUMCAD (Genitourinary Medicine Clinic Activity Dataset). For the first time, the genitourinary medicine(GUM) clinic data are based on a disaggregate dataset, using pseudonymised individual level data, rather than an aggregate summary. As a consequence, we […]
STI on the BBC
We at STI were delighted to see that one of our research papers (http://sti.bmj.com/content/early/2010/06/07/sti.2009.041954.short?q=w_sti_ahead_tab ) had been picked up by the British Broadcasting Corporation `s news website ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/10401029.stm). It reports a dutch study on STI rates amongst “swingers” ( heterosexual couples who are practising mate swapping, group sex or visit sex clubs for couples). The […]