Pharyngeal screening for Chlamydia trachomatis, more harm than good?

Yet, in the universal screening group, pharyngeal C trachomatis infections represented 22·9 % of all C trachomatis infections, and isolated pharyngeal infections were found in only 3·3% of all C trachomatis. [...]only 0·5% of all women had an isolated pharyngeal C trachomatis infection. [...]the aut...

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Veröffentlicht in:The Lancet infectious diseases 2022-04, Vol.22 (4), p.437-438
Hauptverfasser: van Dam, Alje P, de Vries, Henry J C
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:Yet, in the universal screening group, pharyngeal C trachomatis infections represented 22·9 % of all C trachomatis infections, and isolated pharyngeal infections were found in only 3·3% of all C trachomatis. [...]only 0·5% of all women had an isolated pharyngeal C trachomatis infection. [...]the authors concluded that “the probably limited clinical and public health effect and risk of overtreatment do not support routine universal testing as the recommended testing strategy”.4 However, since no increased prevalence of pharyngeal C trachomatis infections was found in any proposed risk group, selective screening does not provide any advantage over universal screening, and the conclusion of this paper might rather be that there is no place for pharyngeal screening of C trachomatis in women to begin with. Whereas the incidence of N gonorrhoeae and C trachomatis in heterosexual couples who had anogenital contact only could be similar,1 detection and treatment of pharyngeal N gonorrhoeae might be more important because of the difficulties to treat pharyngeal N gonorrhoeae infections, especially those caused by strains with decreased susceptibility to cephalosporins.7–9 Whereas screening strategies for N gonorrhoeae and C trachomatis often differ, many laboratory-developed and commercial test systems test for both microorganisms automatically.
ISSN:1473-3099
1474-4457
DOI:10.1016/S1473-3099(21)00581-8