Epidemiology of sexually transmitted diseases in the mine area of Las Claritas, Bolivar State, Venezuela

The primordial objective of this study was to carry out an epidemiological analysis of sexually transmitted diseases (STD) in terms of sensed morbidity and real morbidity in the mining region of "Las Claritas", Bolivar State, Venezuela, during the third trimester of 1998. The epidemiological characteristics of time, people and place are interlaced, giving a relationship included within the Epidemiological Triad, that represents this work's conceptual framework; defining both, the determinant and the conditioning factors of the presence of STDs in the zone. The clinical interrogatory was partially steered towards the participant's sensed morbidity. A mostly feminine population is described (65%), with a low scholarly level in the general population and a high index of foreigners among the evaluated patients; with 48.72% of stable unions in the interviewees. From 166 evaluated patients, 27.70% referred to have had some STD episode, being syphilis and blenorrhagia the most frequently reported. In the survey, there was a general hush concerning the presence of STDs; but, key informants such as the medicine retailers, revealed a higher presence of these diseases, which are wrongly treated by automedication. These are important results, since they let opened a space for the epidemiological evaluation in the zone, in the various health, sanitary, environmental and social aspects and mainly, by the individual's quality of life expectations.