SEXUALLY-TRANSMITTED DISEASES IN PATIENTS ATTENDING A BALTIMORE TUBERCULOSIS CLINIC - ASSESSMENT OF USE OF MULTIPLE CATEGORIC SERVICES

Background: Recent increases in the incidence of tuberculosis and syph ilis have occurred disproportionately in young heterosexuals of low so cioeconomic status. The authors hypothesized that an overlap of tuberc ulosis and sexually transmitted disease clinic populations potentially could result in inefficient use of limited public health resources, M ethods: The authors conducted a retrospective study to determine the c oinfection rate of syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases in patients seen for evaluation at the Baltimore City Tuberculosis Clini c, Baltimore, Maryland, The authors de termined the sexually transmitt ed disease clinic utilization patterns of this patient population, Res ults: For patients referred to the tuberculosis clinic, 9.0% had a his tory of syphilis and 13.6% had at least one documented visit at a Balt imore City sexually transmitted disease clinic Blacks presenting to th e tuberculosis clinic were more likely to have previously diagnosed sy philis (13.6%) and to have had visited the sexually transmitted diseas e clinics (16.5%), Conclusions: In Baltimore, the patient population o f tuberculosis clinics overlaps with those at the public sexually tran smitted disease clinics. Thus, cross screening for syphilis and tuberc ulosis at urban clinics would be an important mechanism for identifyin g new cases of disease and increasing the efficiency of the public hea lth system.