[Epidemiological features of sexually transmitted diseases among children below age 15 at the National STD Surveillance sites].

In order to understand the trends and epidemiological characteristics of sexually transmitted diseases among children below the age of 15 at national STD surveillance sites which will lead to the development of strategies on prevention and control, STD surveillance at selected national sites had been consecutively monitored during the period of 1987-1996 with data collected and analyzed. The epidemiological characteristics of STD among children below age 15 were found as follows: (1) Incidence rates of STD in children appeared to be ascending yearly, from 0.51/100,000 in 1987 to 8.62/100,000 in 1996. (2) Gonorrhea was the most frequently seen sexually transmitted disease among children, constituting 85.58% of the kinds of STDs on average. However, the proportion of gonorrhea cases in children is declining with the increase of NGU and syphilis. (3) Incidence rates among girls were consistently higher than the rates for boys, with a sex ratio of 2.35:1. (4) Incidence rate in group--0 was 44.68 per 100,000 population in 1996, much higher than the rates in other groups of children. (5) Incidence rates among children in both urban and minority areas were higher than the rates in rural area. The STD situation in children at the national STD surveillance sites has become crucial which calls for more attention.