[Trends in incidence of sexually transmissible disorders in The Netherlands]

In 1983 the Chief Medical Inspectorate set up a national registration of sexually transmitted diseases (STD), beside the system of statutorily notifiable diseases in the Netherlands. Data for this registration are collected by the nursing staff in STD clinics. Besides diagnosis and sex of the patient epidemiological background information is registered. The data show a decrease in the total number for gonorrhoea and syphilis in the period 1984-1990. Among homosexual men gonorrhoea increased after 1989. A decrease in STD was demonstrated among prostitute women. Further, the share of penicillinase producing Neisseria gonorrhoeae was found to be increasing in various subgroups, but not in homosexual men. Comparison of age, sex, prostitution, and sexual inclination of over 25,000 patients with Chlamydia trachomatis, gonorrhoea or syphilis infections indicate that syphilis was significantly more frequent among older patients and women than gonorrhoea, but less frequent among prostitutes. Syphilis patients were significantly more often visitors of prostitutes than patients with gonorrhoea, and were more often homosexual or bisexual. Chlamydiosis patients were mostly women and younger than gonorrhoea patients, they were less often working as a prostitute and less often homosexual or bisexual.