A study of clinical and sociodemographic features of trichomoniasis in symptomatic and asymptomatic female patients attending the STD clinic using wet mount and culture as diagnostic tools

Abstract

Introduction: Trichomoniasis in sexually transmitted infection caused by protozoan Trichomonas vaginalis, which accounts for more than half of all curable STIs worldwide. About 10 to 50% of patients harbor Trichomonads without developing any symptoms that serves as major reservoir of infection. In this background study was done to know disease characteristics and prevalence of Trichomoniasis in asymptomatic and symptomatic female patients using wet mount and culture as diagnostic methods. Materials and method: 250 symptomatic and 250 asymptomatic patients are selected randomly. Patients with complaints of vaginal discharge, dysuria, dyspareunia, pruritus, lower abdominal pain are taken as symptomatic group, and patients attending STD OP for routine checkup & for screening are taken as asymptomatic group. 4 vaginal swabs were taken from the posterior fornix of each patient, one swab was used for wet mount preparation and another swab was inoculated directly into the DiamondsTYIS‐33 medium and other two swabs were used for KOH and Grams staining respectively. Results: Total of 8% of women had Trichomoniasis,31 (12.4%) women in the symptomatic group and 9 (3.6%) women in the asymptomatic group. Risk factors associated with Trichomoniasis in our study are women from urban area with low socioeconomic status, who were single and separated, women with multiple sexual partner, and women whose husband have extramarital contact. Conclusion: Trichomoniasis is a marker for high‐risk sexual behaviour, even though the results were statistically significant in symptomatic and asymptomatic group the relatively high prevalence rate in asymptomatic group also, indicate the need for routine screening of female in their reproductive age group, counselling and behavioural change to reduce the risks for acquiring other STI and HIV infection.