Prevalence of genitalChlamydia trachomatisin Iran: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Objective: To determine the overall prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis in Iranian males and females and to find out the effect of this bacterium on fertility potential and its association with urogenital symptoms. Methods: We searched both English and Persian electronic databases using keywords 'Chlamydia', 'Chlamydia trachomatis', 'prevalence', 'incidence', 'frequency', 'epidemiology' and 'Iran'. Finally, after some exclusion, 34 studies from different regions of Iran were included in our study, and a meta-analysis was performed to determine pooled prevalence estimates for each group. Results: C. trachomatis prevalence for women and men was high and ranged from 0 to 32.7% and 0 to 23.3%, respectively (95% CI). The pooled prevalence of the bacterium in the female population was 12.3% (95% CI: 10.6-14.2%) and in men was 10.9% (95% CI: 7.6-15.4%). A high level of heterogeneity was seen for both men (I 2 5 77.4%; P v 0.001) and women (I 2 5 77.5%; P v 0.001); but in men and not in women, some evidence for publication bias was observed [Egger's test (twotailed P 5 0.013); Begg's test (two-tailed P 5 0.025)]. In females analysis of symptomatic/infertile group with asymptomatic/fertile group in females, the overall OR was above 1 and the overall P-value was below zero. Conclusions: This bacterium may play a role in female infertility or be associated with clinical manifestations; thus, planning national programmes for adequate diagnosis of genital infections caused by this pathogen is necessary. Furthermore, screening strategies, particularly for asymptomatic individuals, and treatment of infected people can reduce consequent complications.

Association of asymptomatic Chlamydia trachomatis infection with male infertility and the effect of antibiotic therapy in improvement of semen quality in infected infertile men

“…Accordingly, we used this antibiotic regimen in our study to treat the infected infertile men. As the bacterium may be transmitted between the couples (Ahmadi et al., ), the female partners of the infected patients were also treated by the same antibiotics with the same doses.…”

“…Chlamydia trachomatis is an obligate intracellular pathogen causing sexually transmitted urogenital infections such as nongonococcal urethritis, epididymitis and prostatitis in males and cervicitis, salpingitis, pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and ectopic pregnancy in females, which may exert negative effects on human reproduction (Ahmadi, Mirsalehian, & Bahador, ).…”

Prevalence of Ureaplasma urealyticum, Chlamydia trachomatis, and Neisseria gonorrhoeae in gynecological outpatients, Taizhou, China

“…Our study further confirmed that the younger age group (<25 years) had the highest prevalence rate of UU and CT, which had also been reported in recent studies. 1,4,17,18 It might be due to the fact that women aged <25 years were just after sexual debut, and the genital tissues were still immature. In addition, this study found that the age-specific NG distribution presented a bimodal curve, the younger age group (<25 years) had the higher prevalence rate, the middles ages had a lower prevalence rate, and women aged ≥40 years had the highest susceptibility to NG infection.…”

Prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae infections among pregnant women and eye colonization of their neonates at birth time, Shiraz, Southern Iran

“…The annual estimation indicates different rates of infection in various parts of the world, ranging between 1.9–30.6% in pregnant women [ 2 ] and 1.6–18% in the neonates [ 3 , 4 ] for C. trachomatis and for N. gonorrhoeae 0.08–7% [ 2 ] and 0.06–0.4% [ 3 , 5 ], respectively. In Iran, the results of a meta-analysis showed that the pooled prevalence rates of C. trachomatis in males and females were 10.9% (95% CI, range: 7.6–15.4%) and 12.3% (95% CI, range: 10.6–14.2%), respectively [ 6 ]. Also, studies reported that prevalence of C. trachomatis in pregnant women was 2.2% to 14.79% [ 7 – 9 ].…”