OBJECTIVE: Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) are often the cause for search for medical assistance. Media campaigns on STD/Aids presume that exposure to sexual risk practices during Carnival is greater than in other periods of the year. The objective here is to study the temporal distribution of first consultations in a STD clinic, from January, 1993, to December, 2005, to verify whether there is a seasonal increase of STD after Carnival. METHODS: Two thousand, six hundred and fifty six (2,656) records of patients who had received a diagnosis of gonorrhea, syphilisor trichomoniasis were selected. These patients at the time had looked for assistance at the STD Division of the Universidade Federal Fluminense, in Niterói, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The standardized mean of the number of consultations during those 13 years, month by month, and year by year was observed in the statistical analysis and also smoothed series by the Lowess method and by the deterministic method of the variable mean was considered. RESULTS: July and August showed an increased number of diagnoses for gonorrhea and syphilis, while in June and July there was a concentration of trichomoniasis diagnoses. Gonorrhea presented its highest value in May, tending to a reduction until August. A constant number of syphilis diagnoses was noted between May and August, with a decreased number in January and February, reaching a peak in November. The seasonal behavior of trichomoniasis showed the greatest number of diagnoses in July, with a consistent reduction tendency until December, and an increase from January on. CONCLUSION: The Carnival period has no influence on the increase of gonorrhea, syphilis and trichomoniasis diagnoses in patients observed in a STD clinic in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro.
STD; Carnival; Seasonality; Syphilis; Vaginal trichomoniases; Genital gonorrhoeae
