Syphilis prevalence among key populations (A, B, D)

Understanding how the sampled populations relate to any larger populations sharing similar high-risk behaviour is critical to interpreting this indicator. Trends in syphilis prevalence among key populations in the capital city provide a useful indication of the performance of HIV and sexually transmitted infection prevention programmes in that city, but they may not be representative of the situation in the country as a whole. The addition of new sentinel sites increases the sample's representativeness and therefore provides a more robust point estimate of syphilis prevalence. However, adding new sentinel sites reduces the comparability of values over time. As such, any changes in number of sites providing data needs to be documented in the comments section.

Surveys exclusively covering transgender people are rare. Most data for transgender communities are drawn from surveys of gay men and other men who have sex with men or sex workers. The risk environment reported for most transgender communities is high, placing transgender women at especially high risk of acquiring a sexually transmitted infection and of transmitting that infection. If transgender women are respondents in surveys of sex workers, include the data with sex workers as a disaggregation. If transgender people are respondents in surveys of gay men and other men who have sex with men, include the data under the transgender tab.

Testing using both nontreponemal and treponemal tests enhances the likelihood that the reported numbers of positive tests represent active infection. Some countries, however, only have information for one test type. Please note in the comment fields if syphilis testing practices have changed, as this will need to be considered when interpreting the disease trends.