Prevalence of Selected Sexually Transmitted Infectious Agents in a Cohort of Asymptomatic Soldiers in Austria

Overview

Journal Parasit Vectors

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialties Parasitology
Tropical Medicine

Date 2022 Nov 14

PMID 36372885

Authors

Iwona Lesiak-Markowicz

Claudia Tscherwizek

Wolfgang Poppl

Gerhard Mooseder

Julia Walochnik

Ursula Furnkranz

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than one million sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are acquired every day worldwide. Although STIs may be asymptomatic in many cases, they can cause severe symptoms and can also lead to adverse pregnancy outcomes and both male and female infertility. Asymptomatic carriers seem to play an important role in terms of the distribution of STIs; however, studies revealing the prevalence of STIs in asymptomatic individuals are rare.

Methods: In the current study, 654 leftovers of standard urine samples from healthy, asymptomatic Austrian soldiers were investigated for the prevalence of Trichomonas vaginalis, Chlamydia trachomatis, and genital mycoplasmas (Mycoplasma hominis, Mycoplasma genitalium, Ureaplasma urealyticum, Ureaplasma parvum, and Candidatus Mycoplasma girerdii) by specific PCRs.

Results: We detected T. vaginalis, M. hominis, U. urealyticum, U. parvum, and C. trachomatis in the investigated samples with prevalence of 7.6%, 4%, 2.4%, 5.4%, and 3.2%, respectively; neither M. genitalium nor Ca. Mycoplasma girerdii was found in our sample collection.

Conclusions: Our study introduces data on STIs of a mainly male cohort, which are scarce because most of the available information on sexually transmitted infectious agents arises from fertility clinics (mainly women) or symptomatic patients.

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