Sexually Transmitted Infections based on Syndromic Approach and Risk Behavior Factors in Ethiopia

Background: Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) constitute a major public health problem worldwide. They are important because of their magnitude, potential complications, and interactions with HIV/AIDS. Due to this fact, the National HIV/AIDS Policy of Ethiopia identified STI prevention and control as one of the strategies to prevent and control HIV/AIDS. In order to fill the critical information gap on STI, Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) has established a national STI surveillance system in selected sentinel health facilities. Method: From July 2014 to June 2015, a cross sectional study was carried out in 20 sentinel health facilities to determine the proportion of respondent with Urethral discharge, Vaginal discharge, Lower abdominal pain, Inguinal Bubo, Scrotal swelling, Genital ulcer disease and their HIV status. Result: The majority (67%) of the participants was in the age group 20-34 yrs and 68% of them were females. From 1421 participants, 1333 were diagnosed with one symptom and 88 with two symptoms; vaginal discharge constitutes the highest proportion (52.2%) followed by urethral discharge (25.3%), then lower abdominal pain (13.3%), non-vesicular GUD (4.6%) and vesicular GUD (2.7%). The participant's sexual history for the past three months was assessed and 17.4% of them had sexual encounter with a non-regular partner and of them 55.8% have not used condom with non-regular partner during the last contact. In addition, HIV status was reported by 1118 (78.7%) participants and 181 (16.2%) of them were found to be HIV positive (8.4% among males and 19.7% among females). Out of 107, HIV positive study participants, who reported their previous HIV status, 88 (82.2%), used to know their HIV status and 19 (17.8%), were newly tested positives. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that a considerable proportion of patients had sexual encounter with a non-regular partner in the last three months period and of them more than half have not used condom during the last sexual contact. Moreover, a larger proportion of HIV positive STI patients used to know their status before the study. Therefore, expansion of STI preventive services including health education on the transmission and possible complications of untreated STI is crucial.