Awareness of promoting HIV and syphilis detections for suspected STD patients in medical staff from 45 hospitals of Ningbo

Objective To understand the awareness of promoting HIV and syphilis detections for suspected STD patients in medical staff and explore effective measures to improve HIV and syphilis detections in this population. Methods Data was collected from medical staff of STD related departments in 45 hospitals in Ningbo, Zhejiang province. Results The awareness rate of HIV/AIDS-related knowledge was 98.9% in medical staff surveyed, and 84 medical staff (95.5%) knew that HIV and syphilis detection for suspected STD patients had been conducted in Ningbo and 71 medicals staff (80.7%) had ever received trainings on STD diagnosis and reporting. All the medical staff were willing to recommend suspected STD patients to receive HIV and syphilis tests, and 96.6% of them had such practice. The differences in proportions of medical staff receiving related training in different departments were significant (2=7.701, P=0.001). Problems existing in the promotion of HIV and syphilis tests for suspected STD patients included lack of sufficient time to conduct counsel for each patient due to mass outpatients and poor awareness of voluntary test in suspected STD patients. Conclusion The local clinical medical staff in Ningbo had known the strategy of HIV and syphilis detections for suspected STD patients and were willing to recommend the detections actively, but difficulties still existed. The coverage of voluntary test should be expanded, medical staff training should be strengthened in hospitals.