An epidemiological approach to sexually transmitted diseases – with special reference to contact tracing and screening

Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) are a major health problem all over the world. The diseases are often spread by unsuspecting asymptomatic individuals. One important means of controlling STD is thus the identification of asymptomatic persons. The purposes of this thesis were a) to describe methods of identifying infected individuals through contact tracing and screening, b) to evaluate contact tracing routines, c) to compare epidemiological characteristics of two different groups of chlamydia-infected women and their partners and d) to see if data from contact tracing could be used in a model describing partner choice and STD spread. A microepidemic of penicillinase-producing gonococci was effectively…