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Symptom-Based Versus Laboratory-Based Diagnosis of Five Sexually Transmitted Infections in Female Sex Workers in Iran

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Abstract

Among 1337 Iranian adult female sex workers in 2015, we assessed the diagnostic value of 4 self-reported sexually transmitted infection (STIs) symptoms for detecting laboratory-confirmed gonorrhea, chlamydia, trichomoniasis, human papillomavirus (HPV), and syphilis. While 37.7% reported vaginal discharge (VD), 25.9% reported pain or burning (P/B), 3.0% reported genital ulcers (GU), and 1.4% reported genital warts (GW), the prevalence of laboratory-confirmed syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, trichomoniasis, and HPV was 0.4, 1.3, 6.0, 11.9, and 41.9%, respectively. The sensitivity of VD was 40.3% for detecting tricomoniasis, 37.5% for chlamydia, and 37.5% for gonorrhea. The sensitivity of P/B ranged from 12.5% for gonorrhea to 25.2% for trichomoniasis. The sensitivity of GU and GW was very low for 5 STIs. The sensitivity of all symptoms combined was also lower than 50%. Among asymptomatic participants, 41.2% tested positive for HPV, 11.8% for trichomoniasis, and less than 6.6% for other STIs. Symptom-based case management and surveillance of STIs can lead to misclassification of a large proportion of cases.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Parvin Afsar Kazerooni for her insightful comments on original draft of this paper. We would like to acknowledge supervisors and field staff from all collaborative universities who provided inputs to the study design and methods, assisted in data collection and implementation of the survey. Our gratitude also goes to the FSW who participated in the survey.

Funding

The study was funded by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria through UNDP Iran, and by Ministry of Iran. For this paper, we also received support from the University of California, San Francisco’s International Traineeships in AIDS Prevention Studies (ITAPS), U.S. NIMH, R25MH064712.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. HIV/STI Surveillance Research Center, and WHO Collaborating Center for HIV Surveillance, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran

    Armita Shahesmaeili, Mohammad Karamouzian, Mostafa Shokoohi, Hamid Sharifi, Ali Akbar Haghdoost & Ali Mirzazadeh

  2. School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Mohammad Karamouzian

  3. Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada

    Mostafa Shokoohi

  4. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Kianoush Kamali & Noushin Fahimfar

  5. Virology Research Center, National Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (NRITLD), Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Seyed Alireza Nadji

  6. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Institute for Global Health Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Ali Mirzazadeh

Authors
  1. Armita Shahesmaeili
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  2. Mohammad Karamouzian
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  3. Mostafa Shokoohi
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  4. Kianoush Kamali
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  5. Noushin Fahimfar
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  6. Seyed Alireza Nadji
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  7. Hamid Sharifi
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  8. Ali Akbar Haghdoost
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  9. Ali Mirzazadeh
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ali Mirzazadeh.

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Conflict of interest

All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. The study was anonymous, and no identifying information was collected during recruitment, informed consent, interview, or STIs testing. A unique identification code was provided to participants to help link survey responses to their test results. Participants were able to receive their STIs test results, post-test counseling, and referrals from the local testing and counseling center by providing their unique identification code. FSWs were given 70,000 Rials (equal to ~ 2.5 USD) as an incentive for participating in the study and 30,000 Rials (equal to ~ 1 USD) if they returned to receive their test results. The study protocol was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Kerman University of Medical Sciences (Ethical Code: K/93/209).

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Shahesmaeili, A., Karamouzian, M., Shokoohi, M. et al. Symptom-Based Versus Laboratory-Based Diagnosis of Five Sexually Transmitted Infections in Female Sex Workers in Iran. AIDS Behav 22 (Suppl 1), 19–25 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-018-2130-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-018-2130-5

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