Abstract
For geographical and recent historic reasons, Portugal is a gateway and home for immigration from sub-Saharan countries. Misconceptions related to these populations often lead to consider them as high-frequency clusters for dissemination of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Epidemiological evidence-based data is needed to elucidate these issues and baseline prevalence studies are the starting point for this. A prospective study was conducted in 220 African migrants (171 men and 49 women), recently arrived in Portugal, at the time of their first consultation. The presence of STIs was evaluated using a clinical syndromic approach and biological confirmation for gonorrhoea, Chlamydia trachomatis genital infection, syphilis, Hepatitis B and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection. Global prevalence of the targeted infections were 1.8% for gonorrhoea, 0 % for Chlamydia infection, 4.1% for Syphilis, 5.9% for HBsAg presence and 7.3% for HIV infection. Globally, 16.4% of the studied persons had at least one sexually transmitted infection. We concluded that prevalence rates encountered in this population is similar to that of non-migrant Portuguese populations with a high risk for sexually transmitted diseases. Therefore migration from sub-Saharan Africa doesn't seem to constitute a particularly critical isolated factor for public health risk of STIs in the community.
Highlights
Due to geographical and recent historic reasons, Portugal is a gateway and home for immigration from sub-Saharan countries
The global prevalence of the considered sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and their distribution agree with the known general prevalence rates of those of the countries of origin of the study participants and similar studies on migrants
The surveillance system of STIs is a recent acquisition in Portugal, making projections and comparative studies difficult, the detected infections in this population seems to match that of high-risk European groups [3]
Summary
Due to geographical and recent historic reasons, Portugal is a gateway and home for immigration from sub-Saharan countries. After a recent decolonization process, a constant migratory flux to Portugal was maintained from sub-Saharan Portuguese-speaking countries, as well as from surrounding African countries that share the same migratory routes These migratory phenomena are generally based on economical and conflict-generated factors, and do not have distinctive features when compared to other southern European countries. Misconceptions related to these populations often lead to consider them as high-frequency clusters for dissemination of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). For geographical and recent historic reasons, Portugal is a gateway and home for immigration from sub-Saharan countries
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