Twenty years of work of the Counselling Centre for Sexual Health Promotion of the Croatian Institute of Public Health
Autori:
Diana Jovičić Burić, Lana Kasumović, Sanja Musić Milanović
Sažetak
Summary
Aim: The Sexual Health Promotion Counselling Centre of the Croatian Institute of Public Health (CIPH) was opened as a Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centre (VCT) for HIV in November 2004. The aim of this paper is to describe the 20-year work of the VCT of the CIPH – Sexual Health Promotion Counselling Centre. Materials and methods: In this paper we analyzed gender, age, risky (sexual) behavior and test results for 9612 users. Descriptive statistics methods were used in statistical analysis, such as absolute numbers and proportions.
Results: A total of 9612 users were registered in the database of the Sexual Health Promotion Counselling Centre of the
CIPH in the period from November 9, 2004, to December 31, 2024. According to distribution by gender, the share of male users is higher, 65.6%, 33.9% are female users, and for 0.5 % of users gender wasn’t recorded. A total of 73 positive tests for HIV, 78 for HBV, 26 for HCV and 125 for syphilis were registered.
Conclusions: CIPH Sexual Health Promotion Counselling Center work results presented in this paper show that, apart from HIV infection, other sexually transmitted infections, which are more common in Europe and the world than HIV infection, should not be neglected, and that investments and strengthening of preventive activities in the field of sexual and reproductive health should be directed towards expanding services.
