Individual Counseling of Patients With Sexually Transmitted Diseases

BACKGROUND: Sexually transmitted diseases (STD) are a major health problem in Zambia. Partner notification, which is a recommended strategy to decrease STD, must be improved. GOAL: To assess whether individual counseling of patients with STD, combined with contact slip(s), had any impact on the proportion of sex partners traced in an urban setting in Zambia. STUDY DESIGN: A randomized trial comprised of 94 women and 302 men with STD. RESULTS: Women and men in the intervention group informed more partners than did those in the control group. In the intervention group, 1.8 partners per man was treated compared to 1.2 in the control group (P < 0.001). There was no difference between the two groups of women. There was a gradual decline from numbers of partners informed to numbers of partners treated according to the patient to number of contact slips filed. CONCLUSIONS: Individual counseling of men with STD improved partner notification.