Risk factors associated with failure of syndromic treatment of sexually transmitted diseases among women seeking primary care in Addis Ababa

OBJECTIVE: To determine risk factors associated with the failure of syndromic management of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among women seeking treatment in primary healthcare centre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. METHODS: Women with symptomatic STDs seeking care in a health centre were prospectively enrolled. A total of 259 women were interviewed and underwent clinical examination; 106 were enrolled and received syndromic STD treatment and 91% returned for follow up. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify risk factors associated with treatment failure. RESULTS: Of the 106 women enrolled and presenting with symptomatic STDs 67% were HIV seropositive. Syndromic STD treatment did not result in clinical improvement in 30% of the women. Having genital ulcer disease, genital ulcer disease with genital discharge, genital warts, bacterial vaginosis and plasma HIV-1 load >10,000 copies RNA/ml or being HIV seropositive were all significantly associated with treatment failure. In multivariate analysis, however, only genital ulcer disease was significantly associated with treatment failure. CONCLUSION: In our setting, the association between HIV and genital ulcer disease caused by herpes may, therefore, be the reason for the failure of treatment.