ArticleAIDS research and treatment2020
Syndromic versus Laboratory Diagnosis of Sexually Transmitted Infections in Men in Moshi District of Tanzania.
Article in AIDS research and treatment, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- STI prevalence and the integration of point-of-care nucleic acid amplification testing into STI diagnostic algorithms at a Médecins Sans Frontières key population clinic in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.Frontiers in reproductive health · 2026Article
- High Incidence of Curable Sexually Transmitted Infections Among Persons Accessing Oral Preexposure Prophylaxis at an Integrated Sexually Transmitted Infection/Preexposure Prophylaxis Clinic in Lilongwe, Malawi.Sexually transmitted diseases · 2025Observational
- High prevalence of STIs among men engaged in transactional sex and alcohol use in western Kenya: important implications for STI prevention interventions.Sexually transmitted infections · 2025Article
- Prevalence and Genetic Characterization ofThe Canadian journal of infectious diseases & medical microbiology = Journal canadien des maladies infectieuses et de la microbiologie medicale · 2025Article
- Individual and community level factors associated with sexually transmitted infections among men in Tanzania: insights from the Tanzania demographic and health survey of 2022.BMC infectious diseases · 2024Article
- Knowledge and prevalence of common sexually transmitted infections among patients seeking care at selected health facilities in Southern Ghana.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Associations between Awareness of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and Prevalence of STIs among Sub-Saharan African Men and Women.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2022Article
- Comparison of syndromic versus laboratory-confirmed diagnosis of Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Treponema palladium, infections at the selected health centers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.Reproductive health · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The syndromic diagnosis of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is widely recognized as the most practical, feasible, and cost-effective diagnostic tool in resource-limited settings. This study assessed the diagnostic accuracy of syndromic versus laboratory testing of STIs among 794 men randomly selected from the Moshi district of Tanzania. Participants were interviewed with a questionnaire that included questions on history of STIs symptoms. Blood and urine samples were taken from the participants for laboratory testing. Only 7.9% of the men reported any symptoms of STI; however, 46% of them tested positive for at least one STI. There was little agreement between syndromic and laboratory-confirmed diagnoses, with low sensitivity (0.4%-7.4%) and high specificity (96%-100%) observed for each individual symptom. The area under the receiver-operating curve was 0.528 (95% CI: 0.505-0.550), indicating that the syndromic approach has a 52.8% probability of correctly identifying STIs in study participants. In conclusion, whenever possible, laboratory diagnosis of STI should be favored over syndromic diagnosis.
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Registered trials
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