Prevalence and Determinants of Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Women Attending Antenatal Clinics and Gynecology Health Services in Sana a, Yemen

This study was designed to study the prevalence and determinants of STD and their relative frequencies among women attending antenatal and gynecology services in Sana a,Yemen and to validate syndromic case management on patients attending antenatal and gynecological services. During theperiod December 2004 to May 2005 a cross-sectional study was conducted at six health facilities delivering antenatal care and gynecological health services in Sana a city. A total of911 women were diagnosed syndromically to have STD, all of them were interviewed and underwent a speculum examination.A hundred women were subjected to laboratory investigations.Women age ranges from 15 to 60 years with a meanof 28.57 with standard deviation of 6.9 years. Most of the women were married (86.7%), housewives (83.2%) and resided in urban area (75%). Nearly half of them (50.2%) belonged to the middle social class and 49.2% were illiterate/read and write. There was a highly significant association between genital infection, diagnosed syndromically, and marital status, partner s occupation, IDU, number of sexual intercourse/week, contraceptive methods and types of contraceptive methods{p 0.05). Syndromical diagnosis revealed a high prevalence of candidiasis, vaginitis and cervicitis (36.4%, 26% and 16.6%,respectively). The prevalences of N. gonorrhea, C. trachomatis,T. vaginalis, T. pallidum, C. albican, and HSV-2 were 4%,7%, 2%, 2%, 16%, and 5%, respectively. Most of the genital symptoms among women underwent a speculum examination in both settings were found to be significantly different. Thedata shed the light on the burden of STDs and introduce syndromic diagnosis and management of STDs in Yemen forthe first time.