A twin response to twin epidemics: integrated HIV/syphilis testing at STI clinics in South China.

Background: HIV testing is still stigmatized among many high-risk groups in China, whereas routine syphilis testing has been widely accepted at sexually transmitted infection (STI) clinics. This project used the platform of a rapid syphilis screening test to expand HIV test uptake. The objective of this study was to use multilevel modeling to analyze determinants of syphilis and HIV-testing uptake at STI clinics in China.

Scaling up syphilis testing in China: implementation beyond the clinic.

China is experiencing a syphilis epidemic of enormous proportions. The regions most heavily affected by syphilis correspond to regions where sexually transmitted HIV infection is also a major public health threat. Many high-risk patients in China fail to receive routine syphilis screening.

Accelerating worldwide syphilis screening through rapid testing: a systematic review.

Syphilis is a persistent public health issue in many low-income countries that have limited capacity for testing, which traditionally relies on a sensitive non-treponemal test and then a specific treponemal test. However, the development of a new rapid treponemal test provides an opportunity to scale up syphilis screening in many settings where traditional tests are unavailable. This systematic review of immunochromatographic strip (ICS) syphilis tests describes the sensitivity and specificity in two important clinical settings: sexually transmitted infection (STI) clinics and antenatal clinics.

Integrated syphilis/HIV screening in China: a qualitative analysis.

Background: The last decade has seen enormous advances in HIV treatment and care, but how to implement scaled up HIV testing, prevention, and treatment in low-income areas still presents a formidable public health challenge. South China faces expanding syphilis and sexually transmitted HIV epidemics, but health systems characteristics important for scaling up syphilis and HIV testing have not been defined.

Methods: A purposive sample to ensure public, private, and public-private hybrid STI clinic inclusion was selected in a South China city.