GHENT UNIVERSITY Karoline FONCK - International Centre for ...

1.1. Sexually Transmitted Infections
C HAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) have, in all likelihood, always been present. The recent
emergence of HIV/AIDS has however added new relevance to STIs and has also reinforced
the tremendous cultural burden of diseases associated with sexual contact.
Sexually Transmitted Infections are a group of communicable diseases that are
predominantly transmitted through sexual contact. In many countries STIs have become a
major public health problem on account of their frequency, their impact on maternal and
infant health, their personal and social consequences as well as their cost in terms of health
expenditure and lost productivity. Women, and neonates in particular, carry the major burden
of morbidity and mortality due to STI and or their ensuing complications. The World Bank has
estimated that, in 1990, STIs, excluding HIV infection, rank second, after all maternal causes,
as a cause for healthy life lost in women aged 15 to 44.
Africa carries the largest part of the HIV/AIDS pandemic burden. According to UNAIDS
estimates, over 23 million people were living with HIV in Africa at the end of 1999. The
predominant mode of transmission in Africa has always been heterosexual. The morbimortality
owing to HIV/AIDS has major impacts. The impact on the health sector is
overwhelming. Furthermore, AIDS is systematically cutting down life expectancy in the
countries where the disease is most common. Patterns of HIV infection however show a
great deal of variation with some countries beginning to show stabilization while other
countries experience rapid growth in infection rates. The stabilization is a natural part of the
epidemic process and occurs as a natural result of a dynamic balance between new
infections and deaths.
1.2. Transmission dynamics of STIs
STIs are transmitted through a complex interplay among the natural infectiousness of the
pathogen, the duration of infectivity of the human host, and the rate of sexual interaction
between people.
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