The Prevalence of Endocervical Chlamydia trachomatis Infection Among Young Females in Kashan, Iran

Background: Chlamydia trachomatis is one of the major bacterial agents of the sexually transmitted diseases worldwide, especially among young females. There is no data regarding the prevalence of genital Chlamydia infection among young females in Kashan, Iran. Objectives: The current study aimed to determine the prevalence of endocervical C. trachomatis infection among females aged 17 - 35 years in Kashan, Iran. Patients and Methods: In the current descriptive study, 255 endocervical swab sampleswere collected from the obstetricsand gynecology clinics of Kashan, Iran from December 2012to July2013. Cervical swabs were placed intransport mediaand sent to the laboratory. Toidentify C. trachomatis in the samples Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) was performed to amplify a sequence in the cryptic plasmid, generating a fragment of about 512base pair. Demographic data was collected considering the relevant risk factors by a standard questionnaire. Results: A total of 255 females were tested. The prevalence of genital C. trachomatis was 2.4% (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.54% - 4.26%); 3.2% of the females in the <= 25-year-old group were positive versus 1.8% in the 26 - 35-year-old group. The most general presented symptoms of genital C. trachomatis infection were vaginal discharge (66.6%) and lumbar pain (50%). No significant relationships were found between C. trachomatis infection and the risk factors. Conclusions: To the authors' knowledge this is the first study to describe endocervical C. trachomatis infection in this area. The obtained results also emphasized the importance of routine diagnosis of C. trachomatis to control of the infection.