Genital herpes infection is life-long and may result in painful and recurrent genital lesions, systemic complications, serious psychosocial morbidity, and rare but serious outcomes in neonates born to infected women, including permanent neurological handicap and death. Herpes simplex virus (HSV)-2 is the principal cause, with an increasing proportion of first-episode disease caused by HSV-1. Genital HSV transmission is usually due to asymptomatic viral shedding by people who are unaware that they are infected and clinical screening fails to detect most infections. Type-specific serological assays can distinguish the two viral subtypes, but these are expensive and currently restricted to a few research settings. Most infections are asymptomatic, or cause a mild illness which does not lead to health service attendance; but the limited evidence suggests a rise in disease incidence, perhaps related to a fall in HSV-1 age-specific prevalences. The prevalences of HSV genital infections increase with age and numbers of sexual partners, with higher rates in specific ethnic and low socioeconomic groups. However, infection is not restricted to high-risk populations. Antiviral agents, such as acyclovir, can reduce disease severity, prevent recurrences and shorten periods of viral shedding, but currently there are no effective population control measures. This may change with the advent of HSV vaccines, if their safety and long-term efficacy are confirmed. Possible applications for vaccines may include the suppression of disease and recurrences in patients with genital infections (immunotherapy), the prevention of viral transmission to their seronegative partners, and immunoprevention through vaccinating the latter. Economic evaluations of existing and potential control strategies, age-specific population HSV-1 and 2 seroprevalence studies for targeting future interventions, and cohort studies to elucidate the natural history of HSV-2 infections are needed.
Come now, what regimen, what cure must be adopted to combat this great plague and what is appropriate at which stage of the illness I shall disclose and I shall expound the wonderful discoveries of men' Girolamo Fracastoro's Syphilis,
Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis in women in general practice and to assess risk factors associated with infection. Methods: The study was carried out in 2001-2 in different general practices in Antwerp, Belgium. Sexually active women, visiting their general practitioner for routine gynaecological care (mostly pill prescription or PAP smear), were offered opportunistic screening for chlamydia. 787 participants aged 15-40 delivered a self taken vaginal sample and filled in a questionnaire which included questions on demographic variables, urogenital symptoms, sexual history, and sexual behaviour. Samples were tested for presence of chlamydial DNA by means of a ligase chain reaction (LCR) assay, and positives were confirmed by two other amplification assays (PCR and SDA). Results: Overall prevalence was 5.0% (95% CI: 3.5 to 6.5). Determinants of infection in logistic regression analysis were age 18-27 years, >1 partner in the past year, no use of contraceptives, frequent postcoital bleeding, having a symptomatic partner, painful micturition, and living in the inner city. The area under the ROC curve in the full model was 0.88. Selective screening based on a combination of the five first determinants detects 92.3% of infections in this sample; 37.5% of the population would need to be screened. Conclusion: Targeted screening for chlamydial infection is possible, even in a heterogeneous group of general practice attendants. Implementing this model would require considerable communication skills from healthcare providers.
Summary I05 Belgian strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae were tested for their sensitivity to penicillin, ampicillin, rifampicin, erythromycin, tetracycline, streptomycin, spectinomycin, sulphamethoxazole, trimethroprim, and a combination of sulphamethoxazole and trimethroprim in a 5:i ratio. Distribution and median values of minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) are given and discussed. 42 per cent. of strains were relatively resistant to penicillin (MIC_ oo4 ,Ig/ml.), but only 2 per cent. showed high-level resistance (MIC > o-38 F±g/ml.), which is comparable with the prevalence of decreased sensitivity found in other European countries.A significant positive correlation (P ' o-oI, rank correlation coefficient) is found between the sensitivities to penicillin, ampicidlin, erythromycin, tetracycline, and streptomycin, except for the ampicillin-erythromycin and ampicillin-tetracycline pairs. Rifampicin is correlated with tetracycline. No correlation is found between the sensitivities to spectinomycin and any of the other drugs.The combination of sulphamethoxazole and trimethoprim in a 5:I ratio also shows a significant positive correlation with penicillin and ampicillin and with sulphamethoxazole and trimethoprim separately.
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