A sexual health information system for Malta.

Abstract

Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) are diseases for which direct sexual transmission is an important mode of spread. STDs have multifaceted, national dimensions of morbidity, mortality, and cost implications. They are only second to respiratory tract infections as causes of reported morbidity due to communicable disease in Europe and much of the ill-health is produced by their complications - this is mainly in females and fetus I newborn. The objectives for developing a Sexual Health Information System (SHIS) is twofold: to enable statistics on this topic to be provided and to facilitate the inclusion of this topic in the next revision of Malta's Health Vision 2000. Following a visit by the author of this thesis to UK's Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre and an extensive literature search, options for a SHIS were developed and local feasibility was investigated by means of an interview survey of 'experts' in the field, followed by a postal questionnaire to all relevant professionals. The results showed that most professionals are willing to notify patients and to participate in sentinel surveillance. The patterns of change obtained from this study are identical to changes occurring in the US and UK. Sentinel surveillance, notification and unlinked anonymous HIV prevalence monitoring should be initiated, the latter being the only method to estimate the prevalence of infection in the whole population. This study has provided abundant statistics to support the principle that a SHIS is required to produce reliable and timely information to provide a logical basis for decision making, resource allocation and targeting health promotion campaigns in an effort to better the health of the population.