Surveillance Systems for Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Switzerland

In the current study, the researchers sought to compare time trends from Switzerland's three different STD surveillance systems for chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis.

Surveillance data from laboratory reports in women and men, men attending dermatology clinics and women attending gynecologists were analyzed.

From 1997 to 2003, laboratory reports of cases of Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae increased by 31 percent (from 2,573 to 3,449) and 104 percent (from 259 to 528), respectively. During that same period, chlamydia reports from men attending dermatology clinics and women attending gynecologists did not change, while reports of gonorrhea in men attending dermatology clinics increased just slightly. Dermatology clinic reports of syphilis increased 127 percent (from 22 to 50).

"Increases in laboratory reports of chlamydia and gonorrhea were not consistently detected in sentinel populations. Numbers of cases reported to all three systems were low," the authors concluded. "The performance of surveillance systems for sexually transmitted infections should be evaluated regularly."

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