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CHANCROID MAKING A COMEBACK IN UNITED STATES.

Chancroid is usually considered a "minor" venereal disease, partly because its incidence has been much lower in the United States than in the rest of the world. However, data from the Centers for Disease Control show that outbreaks of this infection have led to a fourfold increase in its incidence here.

More than 3400 cases were reported in 1986, with most of the increase occurring in heterosexual men who patronize prostitutes and in travellers to outbreak areas. The genital ulcers that characterize the disease may have additional importance in that they may provide a port of entry for HIV infection. Efforts to eradicate the disease in outbreak areas have met with limited success, causing concern that we may be at the beginning of a chancroid epidemic.

— THL

Published in Journal Watch General Medicine December 15, 1987

Citation(s):

Schmid G P; Sanders L L, Jr; Blount J H; Alexander E R. Chancroid in the United States. Reestablishment of an old disease. JAMA 1987 Dec 11 258 3265-3268.

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