Epidemiologic aspects of sexually transmitted infections in women from the province of Santiago de Cuba

Introduction: Sexually transmitted infections constitute an outstanding health problem worldwide; they particularly affect the sexual health of women causing ailments and very negative effects as infertility, ectopic pregnancies and cervical uterine cancer. Objective: To describe the epidemiologic characteristics of the outstanding sexually transmitted infections in women from Santiago de Cuba. Methods: A descriptive and retrospective study was carried out in the province of Santiago de Cuba in the female population that presented sexually transmitted infections during 2007-2017, with details of each affection according to year, municipality, age, among other variables of interest. Also, frequency, rates of incidence, tendencies and temporary variations were analyzed. Results: The predominant clinical entities were the pelvic pain syndrome and vaginal secretion, as long as, the less frequent were genital herpes and blennorrhagia. In the analysis for each type of infection a higher affectation was observed in young females. Conclusions: Sexually transmitted infections constitute a serious health problem in women from the province of Santiago de Cuba that becomes important cause of ectopic pregnancies and sterility. However, the epidemiologic surveillance of these diseases should be improved, because there is a marked subrecord of some of them and, therefore, an inadequate care, mainly in the female sex.