UROGENITAL CHLAMYDIA-TRACHOMATIS INFECTIONS IN GENERAL-PRACTICE - DIAGNOSIS, TREATMENT, FOLLOW-UP AND CONTACT TRACING

Background. Patients with urogenital Chlamydia trachomatis infection a re frequently seen in general practice. It is, therefore, important to assess GPs' management of these patients in order to ensure adequate control of the disease. Objective. We aimed to evaluate the GPs' routi nes in diagnosis, medical treatment, follow-up and contact tracing acc ording to knowledge/attitude (criteria) and actual performance. Method s. The study comprised the 388 GPs in the County of Aarhus. Two questi onnaires were used. The first questionnaire was mailed to each of 252 GPs who had attended a patient with urogenital C. trachomatis infectio n 4 weeks previously. Each GP was asked about his/her actual performan ce for that particular patient. In order to elucidate the GPs' criteri a, the second questionnaire was mailed to each of the 388 GPs in the C ounty of Aarhus, asking about their usual intended routines (criteria) for managing urogenital C. trachomatis infections. The questionnaires covered the same topics. Results. Great variations among the GPs' man agement of urogenital C. trachomatis infection according to sampling-s ite, medical treatment, follow-up and contact tracing were found. Furt hermore, a discrepancy between criteria and actual performance for obt aining an urethral swab-sample in women and for contact tracing of pre vious partners were demonstrated. The GPs stated that they had intende d to obtain more urethral swab-samples and do more contact tracing tha n they actually did. Conclusions. We conclude that increasing the coll ection of urethral samples from women combined with greater emphasis o n contact tracing procedures might limit the prevalence of the infecti on. In order to achieve this, continuous medical education and auditin g procedures on urogenital chlamydial infections may be helpful.