Sexually Transmitted Infections
What We Do › Sexually Transmitted Infections
“STI education has moved beyond a few paragraphs in the traditional high school textbook and out into the real world that challenges young people every day.”
Virginia Kelly Judd, executive director of the Humana Foundation (Constanta, Romania/Louisville, Kentucky, partnership)
Sexually transmitted infections—sometimes called reproductive tract infections—are more common than most people realize. STIs can just as easily be transmitted by someone with no symptoms as someone with symptoms and as many as 75 percent of all sexually active adults contract an STI at least once during their lives. WHO estimates that more than 340 million new cases of curable STIs such as gonorrhea, syphilis, chlamydia, and trichomoniasis are diagnosed globally in people between the ages of 15 and 49.
In developing nations, STIs and related complications are among the top five disease categories that cause an adult to seek healthcare services. For women in these countries, STIs are the second leading cause of disease, death, and morbidity. Having and untreated STI also increases the likelihood of contracting HIV 10-fold. STIs pose such a public health threat that, in 2006, the World Health Assembly adopted a draft strategy for their prevention and control to provide a framework for countries to improve and accelerate their STI programs. One of the main goals is to ensure that STI treatment and prevention are integrated into other services for family planning, maternal health, and HIV prevention and care.
AIHA recognizes the importance of comprehensive interventions that provide people with accurate information, teach effective life skills, and offer a wide range of clinical care and prevention services, particularly for young people and members of high-risk segments of the population. Our women’s health, primary care, and HIV-related partnerships and programs address STI education, prevention, and treatment using a proactive, patient-centered, non-judgmental approach.
Projects
AIHA’s efforts to expand STI prevention and treatment programs are carried out through specific programmatic activities, including:
Primary Healthcare Partnerships
STIs effect such a large portion of the population that treatment and prevention programs must be integrated into primary care in order to be most effective. With funding from USAID, AIHA began establishing and managing a network of primary healthcare partnerships in Eastern Europe and Central Asia in 1998. The goal of these partnerships is to ensure that people of all ages have access to comprehensive, continuous, and coordinated care, including targeted STI prevention and treatment services. Read more...
Women's Health Initiative
AIHA’s Women’s Health Initiative was designed to help partners in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia adopt an integrated, client-centered approach to women’s primary care. US and host country partners work together to establish Women’s Wellness Centers that provide not only diagnostic screening and clinical services for both acute and chronic conditions, but also much-needed patient and community health education and support programs. For the first time, women in these countries can come to a single place to seek treatment and advice on health-related matters, including STI services. Read more...
Sexually Transmitted Infections Information Resources
Disseminating accurate, timely information rooted in evidence-based practices and sharing successful models and lessons learned plays an important role in AIHA’s strategy for sustainable healthcare programs. For more information about reproductive health, please visit the following links:
» EurasiaHealth Knowledge Network
» Women's Health Toolkit
» Healthy Communities Toolkit
» AIHA Clinical Practice Guidelines
» Articles
» Other Resources
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