Authors: Martha Powell, Future Science Group
A study estimating the global prevalence of four curable sexually transmitted infections (STIs) – chlamydia, gonorrhea, trichomoniasis and syphilis – has reported that the rates remain high, with over 1 million new cases every day. The data indicates these are a substantive and serious public health problem.
The study comes among other reports on the incidence STIs in specific areas of the world, for example, in England a recent 5% increase in cases for 2018 (compared with 2017) was reported by Public Health England.
In this study, published in the Bulletin of the WHO, the team systematically searched for studies conducted between 2009 and 2016 reporting on prevalence, in addition to consulting regional experts. They then used these data to generate case estimates by Bayesian meta-analysis.
