Prevalence of urogenital Chlamydia trachomatis infection in El Salvador. II. Gynaecology outpatients.

The prevalence of urogenital infection caused by Chlamydia trachomatis was examined in 100 non-pregnant women with cervicitis, and 100 healthy women, in San Salvador City, El Salvador. Pharmacia Chlamydia EIA test was used for the detection of chlamydial antigen in urethral and cervical specimens from all the women. Direct immunofluorescence was used for confirmative tests on the EIA positive and the negative gray zone samples. C. trachomatis antigen was detected in 28% of the women with cervicitis compared with 5% in the group of healthy women (P < 0.001). The cervicitis group were also screened for Neisseria gonorrhoeae which was isolated from 12% of them. One strain out of 12 was beta-lactamase producing (PPNG). Five per cent of the women with cervicitis had simultaneous C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhoeae infections.