title: Setting up a surveillance system for sexually transmitted diseases in the general population with prospective data collection from private-practice and public-practice doctors in Hong Kong.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Existing surveillance systems for sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and reproductive tract infections (RTI) are important but often ineffective, as they tend to omit cases diagnosed by private-practice doctors
  
  
  METHODS
  During a 15-day study period, 277 private-practice doctors and all public-practice doctors of all the eight local Social Hygiene Clinics (SHC) in Hong Kong filled out daily a standard log-form, recording the number of patients diagnosed with particular types of STD/RTI. Projections for all local private-practice and public-practice doctors were made by the stratification method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Data showed that 0.75% of private patients and 40.92% of public patients presented the listed STD/RTI syndromes. It is projected that 12,504 adults were diagnosed with such syndromes by all local private-practice (10,204) or public-practice doctors (2,300); 0.22% (male: 0.26%; female: 0.18%) of the local adult population would fall into this category. The ratio of STD/RTI cases, diagnosed by private-practice versus public-practice doctors, was 4:1. Of the participating private-practice doctors, 96% found the process easy to administer and 75% believed that it was feasible for such a STD/RTI surveillance system to be implemented annually.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Surveillance of STD/RTI based only on data obtained from the public health system is inadequate. Data obtained from public-practice and private-practice doctors are very different and the majority of the patients presented their STD/RTI syndromes to private-practice doctors. The proposed, improved surveillance system is feasible and has the strengths of involving both private-practice and public-practice medical practitioners and being well accepted by private-practice doctors.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Health Behaviours Research, School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China. jlau@cuhk.edu.hk
authors.forename: Joseph T F
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.forename: Chunqing
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: King Man
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: Man Chun
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.forename: Hi Yi
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Tsui
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.forename: Kuen Kong
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Lo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D058005:General Practitioners; D006723:Hong Kong / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D017149:Private Sector; D011446:Prospective Studies; D017150:Public Sector; D012749:Sexually Transmitted Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult