Sexually transmitted diseases (STD's) such as AIDS, syphilis, gonorrhoea, trychomoniasis, chlamidiasis and hepatitis-B form a particular group among infectious diseases. There are more than 20 types of STD pathogens including bacteria, viruses, fungi and unicellular organisms. Some of these diseases are as old as humanity (gonorrhoea) and some have only recently appeared (syphilis, AIDS). These diseases are important because the number of infections is high- several tens of millions of new inflections around the world annually- and continuously increasing. They may threaten life and have serious demographic consequences, in addition, they damage the reproductive chances of the population and their diagnosis and treatment can be very expensive while prevention is still very complex. All this shows that STD's will be a particularly important health problem for both underdeveloped, poor countries and the developed and prosperous industrialised countries.

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