RESEARCH ARTICLE


Low Prevalence of Common Sexually Transmitted Infections Contrasting with High Prevalence of Mycoplasma Asymptomatic Genital Carriage: A Community-Based Cross-Sectional Survey in Adult Women Living in N’Djamena, Chad



Fabrice Compain1, 2, Zita A. Nodjikouambaye3, 4, *, Damtheou Sadjoli3, 5, Ali M. Moussa6, 7, Chatté Adawaye8, Ralph-Sydney M. Bouassa4, 9, 10, Donato Koyalta11, Serge Tonen-Wolyec4, 12, 13, Hélène Péré1, 14, Isabelle Podglajen1, 2, 14, Laurent Bélec9, 14
1 Laboratoire de Microbiologie, Hôpital Européen Georges Pompidou, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France
2 INSERM UMRS 1138, UPMC Université (Paris VI), Université Paris Descartes (Paris V) and Université Paris Diderot (Paris VII); Centre de Recherche Biomédicale des Cordeliers, Paris, France
3 Cabinet Médical de Gynécologie-Obstétrique « La Renaissance Plus », N’Djamena, Chad
4 Ecole Doctorale Régionale en Infectiologie Tropicale, Franceville, Gabon
5 Service de Gynécologie-Obstétrique, Hôpital de la Mère et de l’Enfant, N’Ndjamena, Chad
6 Departamento de Infectología, Faculté de Médecine, N’Djamena, Chad
7 Service de Gastro-entérologie, Hôpital Général de Référence Nationale, N’Djamena, Chad
8 Institut National Supérieur des Sciences et Techniques d'Abéché, Abéché, Chad ;
9 Laboratoire de Virologie, Hôpital Européen Georges Pompidou, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France
10 Ecole Doctorale Bio Sorbonne Paris Cité, BioSPC, Université Paris Descartes (Paris V), Paris, France
11 UNAIDS, N’Djamena, Chad
12 Faculté de Médecine, Université de Bunia, Bunia, Democratic Republic of the Congo
13 Faculté de Médecine et de Pharmacie, Université de Kisangani, Kisangani, Democratic Republic of the Congo
14 Faculté de Médecine René Descartes, Université Paris Descartes (Paris V), Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France


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Creative Commons License
© 2019 Compain et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Service de Gynécologie-Obstétrique, Hôpital de la Mère et de l’Enfant, and Cabinet Médical de Gynécologie Obstétrique “La Renaissance Plus”, N’Djamena, Chad; Tel: +235 65 58 80 57; E-mail: aleyozita@gmail.com


Abstract

Background:

We herein report a cross-sectional study which consecutively enrolled adult women from the community living in N'Djamena, Chad. The aim of the study was to estimate the burden of asymptomatic genital carriage of common curable sexually transmitted infections (STIs) (including Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Mycoplasma genitalium and Trichomonas vaginalis) and genital Mycoplasma spp., as well as to assess their possible associated risk factors.

Methods:

A total of 251 women were consecutively included and screened for common curable STIs as well as for genital mycoplasma carriage by multiplex real-time PCR.

Results:

Only seven (2.8%) women were found to be infected with at least one common STI by multiplex real-time PCR: C. trachomatis, N. gonorrhoeae, M. genitalium and T. vaginalis were recovered from 3 (1.2%), 1 (0.4%), 4 (1.6%) and 1 (0.4%) women, respectively. No sociodemographic and behavioral characteristics could be associated in multivariate analysis with the genital carriage of the four detected common curable STIs. In contrast, the prevalence of genital mycoplasmas was much higher (54.2%) with a predominance of Ureaplasma parvum (42.6% of the total population).

Conclusion:

Our study shows a low prevalence of common STIs in contrast with a high prevalence of mycoplasmas among asymptomatic adult women recruited on a community basis in Chad. These observations highlight the need for etiologic management of STIs relying on PCR-based techniques rather than a syndromic approach in resource-limited countries.

Keywords: Sexually transmitted infections, Mycoplasma, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Chlamydia trachomatis, Trichomonas vaginalis, Adult women, Sub-Saharan Africa, Chad.