PESHAWAR, Aug 23: Doctors at a one-day workshop have been advised to take into account the cultural environment when treating patients suffering from sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

The workshop was organized by a pharmaceutical firm to train general medical practitioners about diagnosis, treatment and management of the patients suffering from STIs here at a local hotel on Monday.

The resource person, Dr Muzaffar Tareen, said that most of the people avoided visiting doctors for STIs treatment, owing to the social taboos. "Being a sex-borne ailment, people are reluctant to visit doctors.

The only way to lure them for treatment is to record their cultural history," said Dr Tareen, who is a sexologist at the Khyber Teaching Hospital. He said that customs, religion, beliefs, poverty and ignorance were the main factors behind the rising number of STIs.

Apart from social support and treatment, the doctors should refer the patients to consultants for further diagnosis, he said and added: "The STIs caused impotency, urinary tract infections, prostates among male and infertility, depression in women, because initially the patients resort to self-medication or visiting the clinics of Hakims, homoeopaths and quacks."

Dr Tareen said that in developed countries, there were special clinics where patients suffering from STIs were treated. "Here are no such clinics and the patients are treated by doctors who are not trained for the STIs," he said.

Lack of sex education, media role and public awareness concerning STIs were the other factors responsible for spread of the disease, he said, adding that the womenfolk had totally been neglected while treating STIs. Men visit the clinics, but women are not allowed, he said.

The failure to seek professional help of the venerologists and sexologists, had enhanced the risk factor, he claimed. Citing the WHO's guidelines, he said that like South Africa, syndrome management clinics should be established to provide help to the patients suffering from the STIs including HIV/AIDS.

He urged the government to introduce water-based lubricants comprising germicides, spermicides and bactericide. He said that they not only prevent the STIs, but also act as contraceptive.

"Unsafe sexual practices, homosexuality, unsafe blood transfusion, drug addiction and re-use of syringes are other factors contributing to the STIs," Dr Tareen said. As there was no treatment for viral infection, the patients could be symptomatically treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics, he said.

Given the state of depressing scenario in the country regarding the STIs, it is all the more important that sex education should be imparted at school and college levels and religious scholars should be involved to create awareness.