Impact of closure of a sexually transmitted disease clinic on public health surveillance of sexually transmitted diseases--Washington, D.C., 1995.

In April 1995, a public sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinic in the northwest (NW) ward of the District of Columbia closed, leaving one public STD clinic in the southeast (SE) ward to provide public STD services for the entire city. This report summarizes an investigation by CDC following a request from the District of Columbia Department of Health's STD program to evaluate the impact of the NW STD clinic closure on STD case reports. The findings of this investigation indicate that the clinic closure resulted in a marked decrease in reported syphilis in the NW ward, and suggest that NW ward residents with syphilis and their partners may not have received proper diagnostic testing, therapy, and counseling.