Abstract

SANCHEZ, Ruth Mélida; RUIZ-PARRA, Ariel Iván  and  OSTOS-ORTIZ, Olga Lucía. Prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis detected by polymerase chain reaction in a group of young symptomatic and asymptomatic women in Bogotá, Colombia. Rev Colomb Obstet Ginecol [online]. 2006, vol.57, n.3, pp.171-181. ISSN 0034-7434.

Introduction: Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) is the most frequent cause of sexually transmitted infection and pelvic inflammatory disease. Almost half chlamydial infections are asymptomatic, making early clinical detection difficult and increasing the probability of long-term sequelae. Objective: deter mining t he prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis infection in a group of young women in Bogotá, Colombia, having symptoms of vaginal discharge or lacking them. Methods: this was a cross-sectional study carried out during June and July 2004. Polymerase chain reaction was used to analyse 355 urine samples from symptomatic and asymptomatic women for the presence of Chlamydia trachomatis. The samples were collected from two primary health-centres and two public universities in Bogotá, Colombia. Socio-demographic variables and contraceptive practices were investigated. Results: nineteen samples were positive for C. trachomatis; fourteen came from the group of patients having vaginal discharge and five were from the group of women lacking it. Overall Chlamydia infection prevalence was 5.35% (95% CI 3.25-8.23). Prevalence was 2.86% (95% CI 0.93-6.54) in asymptomatic women and 7.78% (95% CI 4.31-12.70) in patients having vaginal discharge. Conclusion: these results indicate that Chlamydia infection is an important public health problem. Even though vaginal discharge can be a marker for chlamydial infection, prevalence in asymptomatic women was important thereby justifying developing a policy for screening this population.

Keywords : Chlamydia trachomatis; polymerase chain reaction (PCR); Chlamydia infection; prevalence; epidemiology; diagnosis.

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