Chlamydia trachomatis prevalence, genotype distribution and identification of the new Swedish variant in Southern Germany

Abstract

In Germany, reliable data about the prevalence of urogenital Chlamydia trachomatis infections, causative genotypes, as well as corresponding clinical, demographic and behavioural information are sparse. We, therefore, performed a prospective prevalence study including 1,003 sexually active volunteers of a Southern German city. Study participants completed a standardised questionnaire and provided first void urine samples for analysis. Our screening strategy included the performance of two nucleic acid amplification tests with different target genes, enabling the detection of the new Swedish variant of C. trachomatis (nvCT). Direct genotyping of positive specimens was performed by sequence analysis of the ompA gene. The overall prevalence of C. trachomatis infection was 4.2 % in women and 4.6 % in men. A relatively high prevalence of 8.3 % was found in men older than 25 years. Never using condoms was an independent risk factor for infection. The most common symptom was discharge; however, 64.5 % of infected females and all of the infected men were asymptomatic, supporting the need for screening programmes. The most frequently encountered genotypes were E (46.5 %), F (20.9 %) and K (14.0 %). Since the nvCT was detected in one female student, this is one of the rare studies that reports on the molecular identification of nvCT apart from Sweden.