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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Tsung-Wen Kuo, MD, MPH, PhD¹, James S. Koopman, MD, MPH², Robert M. Pestronk, MPH³, and Denise Kremlick³. (1) Department of Health and Social Services, City of Stamford, 888 Washington Blvd, 8th Floor, Stamford, CT 06905, 203-977-4390, kuotwkuo@aol.com, (2) Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, 611 Church St, Rm 203, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, (3) Genesee County Health Department, 630 S. Saginaw St., Flint, MI 48502

Objectives: Explore the use of partnership data on geographical sites and social settings of partnership formation from infected individuals for the purpose of prioritizing sites for targeted intervention and partners for contact tracing. Methods: Type of social settings and location of sites where partners were first met during a 3-month period were recorded from gonorrhea cases treated in a public STD clinic. Two measures were used to rank the relative importance of sites reported. The location of sites was mapped using ArcView GIS software. Results: The rankings from the two measures were identical. The geographic distribution of public and private settings was significantly different, suggesting that residence is not an ideal variable for directing interventions. Conclusions: Partnership data can help focus on sites where targeted intervention might reduce gonorrhea transmission and partners for prioritizing contact tracing. Gonorrhea prevention programs may benefit from using partnership data to direct targeted intervention efforts.

Learning Objectives: At the clnclusion of the session, the participant in this session will be able to

• Recognize the potential usefulness of partner meeting sites in directing targeted interventions for sexually transmitted diseases
• Understand how information on sites where STD cases meet their partners can be collected and analyzed
• Explore options to target STD control programs based on the study results

Keywords: STD, Surveillance

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered