eLetters

218 e-Letters

  • Reply regarding confidentiality and the human touch
    Emma J Lim

    Dear Editor,

    With regard to your concerns about losing the human touch and confidentiality issues with your patients, our full text article explains the following:

    1. All patients are given a preference on how they would like us to communicate results to them, by phone, text or letter. We found the majority preferred text message as the patients believed it led to the highest degree of confidentiality and ens...

    Show More
  • Herpes = condoms for life?
    Dason E Evans

    Dear Editor,

    We read Rana et al’s (1) paper entitled “Sexual behaviour and condom use among individuals with a history of symptomatic genital herpes” with interest, and find any paper which helps to describe patient’s behaviours and beliefs useful.

    There appears to be one particular flaw in this paper, and that is the authors’ assumption that people with a history of herpes should use condoms at all...

    Show More
  • The quality of sero-surveillance in low and middle income countries
    Jacqueline P Duncan

    Dear Editor,

    Lyerla et al (August 2008 issue) conclude that there is a general overall weakness in the surveillance system of most low and middle income countries in their article on the quality of sero-surveillance. This may well be the case. However, the paper has some important inaccuracies and some of their assertions can be challenged. Their assessment that Jamaica has a poorly functioning surveillance syste...

    Show More
  • Re: Supply and demand
    Sumit Bhaduri

    Dear Editor,

    We read with interest the article by Clarke et al1 regarding assessing demand for access to sexual health services in a community where a closed appointment system operates1. The genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinic in North Worcestershire has been operating this closed system for at least 3 years whereby, patients are offered an appointment either on the day or the day after and asked to phone back...

    Show More
  • no mention of "on costs"?
    Colm O'Mahony

    Dear Editor,

    From this paper we get a good idea on the medical and nursing costs for managing warts but a major cost for the NHS is the building, furnishings, equipment, phones, all other satffing i.e secretaries, reception, managers, finance, personnel etc. This is estimated at about 20% to 25% and should have been mentioned. Some detail about what drugs were used would have been good. In my clinic we treat 800 new...

    Show More
  • Lymphogranuloma venereum among men having sex with men; what have we learned so far?
    Henry J de Vries

    Dear Editor,

    Recently, French et al reported the first cases of lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) in the United Kingdom.1 One year further, the LGV outbreak first noticed in 2003 among MSM has spread beyond the first countries affected (the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, the UK, Sweden and the United states) to other European countries like Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, and outside the continent to A...

    Show More
  • A surgical perspective
    Emma L Marsdin

    Dear Editor,

    Although lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) as a cause of severe proctitis is well known amongst genitourinary and gastroenterological specialists, it remains absent from a common list of causes of rectal bleeding amongst General Practitioners and Surgeons. An example is a case of a homosexual man who presented as a 2 week rule urgent referral to the Colorectal clinic with painless rectal bleeding and went on...

    Show More
  • Chlamydial serovars in MSM in the 1970s
    David Goldmeier

    Dear Editor,

    The article by Waalboer and colleagues (STI 2006;82:207-211) precipitated a déjà vu experience for me- albeit along with something new. They describe a bimodal presentation of chlamydial proctitis in MSM- some with more severe rectal symptoms caused by LGV serovars and the rest with much milder rectal disease caused by the D-K serovars.

    In 1975 as part of my MD thesis undertaken at The Londo...

    Show More
  • LGV doesn’t spread in the overall Chlamydia trachomatis-infected population in France
    Bertille de Barbeyrac

    Dear Editor,

    Helen Ward (3) ask the question about the extent of the Lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) in the wider population than that of men who have sex with men (MSM). A rospective sentinel survey set up in France following the European alert in January 2004 tried to answer this question. From April 2002 to December 2008, rectal samples from MSM were collected by the French National Reference Centre for Chlamydia infec...

    Show More
  • Trafficking would become another cause of HIV/AIDS in Bangladesh
    Mohammad Khairul Alam Alam

    Dear Editor,

    HIV/AIDS is a viral Sexual Transmission Diseases (STDs) which threatens life expectancy and, with it, development, social cohesion, political stability and food security. It imposes a devastating economic burden on countries. Behaviours that bring the highest risk of infection in Bangladesh are unprotected sex between sex workers and their clients, needle sharing and unprotected sex between men....

    Show More

Pages