TY - JOUR
T1 - The Prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis and Three Other Non-Viral Sexually Transmitted Infections among Pregnant Women in Pemba Island Tanzania
AU - Juliana, Naomi C. A.
AU - Deb, Saikat
AU - Ouburg, Sander
AU - Chauhan, Aishwarya
AU - Pleijster, Jolein
AU - Ali, Said M.
AU - Morre, Servaas A.
AU - Sazawal, Sunil
AU - Ambrosino, Elena
N1 - Funding Information:
The molecular testing performed in this study was subsidized by the Otto Kranendonk Fund from the Netherlands Society for Tropical Medicine and International Health (NVTG).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2020/8
Y1 - 2020/8
N2 - Efforts to map the burden of infections globally have shown a high prevalence of genital infections, including Chlamydia trachomatis, in sub-Saharan Africa. This retrospective study aimed to investigate the prevalence of selected non-viral genital infections among pregnant women in Pemba Island, Tanzania. Vaginal swabs were collected during pregnancy and stored in eNAT buffer. Detection of C. trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrheae, Trichomonas vaginalis, and Mycoplasma genitalium pathogens was performed by PCR using validated detection kits. Vaginal samples of 439 pregnant women between 16 and 48 years were tested. In fifty-five (12.5%) of them, at least one genital pathogen was detected. The most prevalent pathogen was T. vaginalis (7.1%), followed by C. trachomatis (4.6%) and M. genitalium (2.1%). None of the vaginal samples tested positive for N. gonorrheae. Consequently, among positive samples, 7.3% were for C. trachomatis and at least one other genital pathogen. This study provides insights on the burden of the four studied genital infections, and on the coinfections among pregnant women in Pemba Island, Tanzania. These results offer a starting point that can be useful to design further research in the field of maternal and child health in Pemba Island.
AB - Efforts to map the burden of infections globally have shown a high prevalence of genital infections, including Chlamydia trachomatis, in sub-Saharan Africa. This retrospective study aimed to investigate the prevalence of selected non-viral genital infections among pregnant women in Pemba Island, Tanzania. Vaginal swabs were collected during pregnancy and stored in eNAT buffer. Detection of C. trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrheae, Trichomonas vaginalis, and Mycoplasma genitalium pathogens was performed by PCR using validated detection kits. Vaginal samples of 439 pregnant women between 16 and 48 years were tested. In fifty-five (12.5%) of them, at least one genital pathogen was detected. The most prevalent pathogen was T. vaginalis (7.1%), followed by C. trachomatis (4.6%) and M. genitalium (2.1%). None of the vaginal samples tested positive for N. gonorrheae. Consequently, among positive samples, 7.3% were for C. trachomatis and at least one other genital pathogen. This study provides insights on the burden of the four studied genital infections, and on the coinfections among pregnant women in Pemba Island, Tanzania. These results offer a starting point that can be useful to design further research in the field of maternal and child health in Pemba Island.
KW - Chlamydia trachomatis
KW - Neisseria gonorrhoeae
KW - Trichomonas vaginalis
KW - Mycoplasma genitalium
KW - sexual and reproductive health
KW - pregnancy
KW - Tanzania
KW - sub-Saharan Africa
KW - ADVERSE BIRTH OUTCOMES
KW - TRICHOMONAS-VAGINALIS
KW - MYCOPLASMA-GENITALIUM
KW - BACTERIAL VAGINOSIS
KW - EPIDEMIOLOGY
KW - ASSOCIATION
KW - GONORRHEA
KW - SYPHILIS
KW - DISEASES
KW - IMPACT
U2 - 10.3390/pathogens9080625
DO - 10.3390/pathogens9080625
M3 - Article
C2 - 32751883
SN - 2076-0817
VL - 9
JO - Pathogens
JF - Pathogens
IS - 8
M1 - 625
ER -