Overview of incidence of sexually transmitted diseases in Kuwait.

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are the most common infections afflicting mankind. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, the global incidence in 1995 of new cases of selected curable STDs, (gonorrhea, chlamydial infection, syphilis, and trichomoniasis) was 333 million. They are now the most common group of notifiable infectious diseases in most countries, particularly in the age group of 15-50 years, and in infants. They assume significance in view of the high incidence of acute infections, complications and sequelae, socioeconomic impact, role in increasing transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). STDs are hyperendemic in many developing countries. In the industrialized world, diseases due to Chlamydia trachomatis, genital herpes virus, human papillomaviruses, and human immunodeficiency virus are now more important than the classical bacterial ones; whereas both groups remain major health problems in most developing countries. Their contribution to the spread of the HIV pandemic due to similar routes of transmission has brought attention to STDs in a forceful manner.