ABSTRACT
Epidemiology Trichomoniasis is the most common non-viral sexually transmitted disease world-wide. It has been estimated that more than 180 million people are infected with Trichomonas vaginalis (Brown 1972). However, according to the National Disease and Therapeutic Index survey, numbers of physician visits for trichomonal vaginitis in the US declined from a high of 1.3 million in 1974 to less than 600 000 in 1987 (Kent 1991). According to a study from Denmark, trichomoniasis has become a rare infection in that country. That is, in 1967, 19% and in 1997, 2% of specimens analysed in the Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, were positive for T. vaginalis (Dragsted et al. 2001). Also in Sweden and Norway, trichomoniasis is an unusual diagnosis (A. Hallén and B. Stray-Pedersen, personal communications). By contrast, in Estonia (the only Baltic country with available data) trichomoniasis was reported among approximately 6 000 individuals out of 1 500 000 inhabitants (1 : 250) in 1994 (Lazdane and Bukovskis 1997).
