Sexually transmitted disease (STD) case management was evaluated through observation and interviews at 2 urban and 4 rural health centres and 2 district hospital STD clinics in one urban and 2 rural districts in Central Province, Zambia. The analysis was limited to 59 patients (42 men and 17 women) who paid first visits for their disease and were managed by a clinical officer. The evaluation suffered from the lack of a standard for case management. Results showed that the patients engaged in risky sexual behaviour without being aware of the risks. At the health institutions, few patients were informed about condoms, the risk of HIV, and abstinence from sex during treatment and few were asked to notify their partners. Clinical officers with special STD training performed better than others but sill informed only one-fifth of the patients. Few clinical officers managed patients according to the syndromic approach recommended by the STD control programme.
PIP: Sexually transmitted disease (STD) case management was evaluated through observation and interviews at two urban and four rural health centers and two district hospital STD clinics in one urban and two rural districts in Central Province, Zambia. The analysis was limited to 59 patients (42 men and 17 women) who made first visits for their disease and were managed by a clinical officer. The evaluation suffered from the lack of a standard for case management. Results showed that the patients engaged in risky sexual behavior without being aware of the risks. At the health institutions, few patients were informed about condoms, the risk of HIV, and abstinence from sex during treatment and few were asked to notify their partners. Clinical officers with special STD training performed better than others, but still informed only one-fifth of the patients. Few clinical officers managed patients according to the syndromic approach recommended by the STD control program.