Vaginal Trichomoniasis among Patients Attending Primary Health Care Centers of Jos, Nigeria

Abstract

Trichomoniasis is widely distributed all over the world and remains a common infection among female patients attending sexually transmitted disease clinics. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of trichomonal infection in HIV/AIDS and non-HIV control groups of patients in a population of women. We conducted a simple cross-sectional study in Primary health care centers in Jos metropolis during December 2006 to December 2007. Seven hundred high vaginal swabs were collected; 350 from HIV positive and another 350 from HIV-negative groups of patients attending antenatal and GOPD clinics in primary health care centers in Jos metropolis and analysed for microscopy and culture in Jos University Teaching Hospital. Data on epidemiologic indices from the patients, using structured interviewer-administered questionnaires were collected. The result shows 17% (n=120/700) rate of trichomoniasis among all participants in the study. The prevalence rate of trichomoniasis among persons with HIV was 24% while it was found to be 10.3% among HIV negative group. The difference was statistically significant (x² =23.172; df=1; p<0.05)).The rate of co-infection of T. vaginalis in Bacterial vaginosis was 42% (n=50/120) , while it was 24%(n=29/120) in candidiasis. The singles had a 35% high rate of trichomonal infection. The infected women had a mean age of 26 years, and a mean number of 3 intra-vaginal sex partners per week. In conclusion therefore there was a high prevalence of Trichomonas vaginalis in HIV/AIDS group of patients compared to non-HIV group in the study. We therefore recommend local HIV prevention strategies to target such women with trichomonal infection for intervention efforts, especially in HIV endemic area of sub-continent of Africa to further reduce the burden of HIV in the population.