Molecular Assessment on The Prevalence of Urogenital Infection with Chlamydia Trachomatis in Asymptomatic Men

Chlamydia trachomatis is a common curable, bacterial sexually- transmitted disease. The epidemic of Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) has been well documented in young women, but information is limited regarding its prevalence among a healthy population of young men. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of urogenital infection with CT in asymptomatic men. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 140 asymptomatic men, aged 15-49 years, attending to the reference laboratory of Bu-Ali hospital, Tehran, Iran from Dec 2005 to May 2006. Participants were selected by random sampling and had not voided at least for the past 2 hours (F.C.U). They completed a questionnaire containing personal characteristics such as age, marriage status, education and job. Demographic data and PCR results analyzed by SPSS13. From the 140 urine samples, 1 (0.7%) was positive for Chlamydia trachomatis by PCR (%95 CI: %0-%2.07). Based on this study, screening for Chlamydia trachomatis in Iranian young asymptomatic men is not recommended. However, for evaluating the true prevalence rate wide studies with large sample sizes are needed. It seems that for epidemiologic studies serology is more cost- effective than PCR is.