TUESDAY, July 12 (HealthDay News) -- Prevalence of Trichomonas vaginalis (TV) is highest in women over 40 years of age, whereas women under 30 years of age have the highest prevalences ofChlamydia trachomatis (CT) and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG), according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the International Society for Sexually Transmitted Diseases Research, held from July 10 to 13 in Quebec City.
Christine C. Ginocchio, Ph.D., from the North Shore-LIJ Health System Laboratories in Lake Success, N.Y., and colleagues investigated TV prevalence and frequency of co-infections with CT and NG among 7,593 women aged 18 to 89 years undergoing routine CT and NG screening. Samples that had been tested for CT and NG using APTIMA COMBO 2 were retested using the APTIMA TV assay.
The investigators found an overall prevalence of 8.7, 6.7, and 1.7 percent of TV, CT, and NG, respectively. Women aged 45 to 49 years and over 50 years had the highest prevalence of TV (13.4 and 13 percent, respectively) compared with 7.5 to 8.6 percent in those aged 18 to 39. The highest prevalences of CT and NG were seen in women younger than 30 years (5.2 to 14.3 percent for CT, and 1.3 to 3.3 percent for NG). Except for the 18 to 19 years group, all age groups had higher prevalence of TV than NG or CT. Prevalence was highest in blacks, in the Southeast, and in jails. Co-infections were highest in the 18 to 19 age group and less than 1 percent in most other age groups.
"TV prevalence was highest in women over 40 years of age, in contrast to CT and NG prevalences, which were highest in women under 30 years of age," the authors write.
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