Prevalence of low genital tract infectious agents in young Israeli women

Low genital tract infectious agents were examined 411 times in 386 young women. Each examination included anamnesis, physical examination and broad-spectrum microbiologic analysis for the detection of: Ureaplasma urealyticum, Chlamydia trachomatis, Trichomonas vaginalis, Candida species, Mycoplasma hominis, Streptococcus β hemolyticus Group B, Hemophilus vaginalis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae and syphilis serology. Three hundred and six patients were symptomatic for low genital tract infection and 80 were asymptomatic. Most patients were young, 19.6 ± 1.7 (SD) years old, single (84.7%) and sexually active (87.4%). U. urealyticum and C. trachomatis were the most common agents recovered in 43.9 and 40.8% of symptomatic patients, respectively. All agents were isolated more frequently in the symptomatic group, but statistically significant group comparisons were obtained only for Candida sp. (P < 0.001), T. vaginalis (P < 0.005) and M. hominis (P < 0.05). N. gonorrhoeae was isolated in only one case (0.3%), which may reflect technical difficulties or a true very low prevalence of this agent. Clinical diagnoses of candidiasis and trichomoniasis in symptomatic patients were confirmed by laboratory results in only 34.9 and 54.9%, whereas negative clinical diagnoses were confirmed in 83.9 and 73.2%, respectively.