Clinico‑Epidemiological Profile of Patients Attending the Sexually Transmitted Disease Clinics at Tripoli Central Hospital and Beer Usta Milad Hospital

Abstract

 Venereal diseases: historically used to refer to infections that are transmitted sexually, like condyloma acuminata, syphilis, herpes, gonorrhea, molluscum contagiosum, and HIV. These disorders are now referred to as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) or sexually transmitted infections; terms that directly reflect recognition that they are caused mainly by sexual contact with an infected person. A retrospective case series study was conducted using the medical records of all STD patients who attended the STD clinic in Tripoli Central Hospital and Beer-Usta Milad Hospital during the time period from 2010 to 2020. The data were collected and analyzed using the SPSS program version 21.  A series of 333 patients was studied and demonstrate that 122 (36.6%) of patients were males while 211 ( 63.4%) females with ratio of (1:1.73); On assessing their ages, the youngest age was 2 years and the oldest was 70 years old with the mean age of 33.47±11.32, most of the patients were Libyan (88.9%) and (11.1%) were non Libyan, the most frequent diagnosis was genital warts (84.68%) followed by syphilis (11.41%), Gonorrhea (1.20%), Molluscum Contagisum ( 0.6%) then Herpes Genitals (0.6%), only (1.2%) were homosexual, (9.01%) of the patients had more than one sexual partner, (6.31%) were confirmed to have HIV infection, ( 1.5%) were drug abusers and only ( 10.51%) gave history of using condom. In our study, we concluded that STDs are common in the young adults’ group between 21 and 30 years (42%), with female predominance 63.4% and most of our patients are heterosexual, having only one partner. Genital warts are recognized to be the most common diagnosis (84.68%), followed by syphilis (11.41%), and syphilis X is identified to be more frequent among non-Libyans. We recommend doing more studies with a large sample size from different geographical areas in Libya to assess the true burden of STDs and ensure a good survey leading to better diagnosis and adequate treatment of STDs.