The prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis infection in rural Thai women.

A cross sectional study was designed to investigate the prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis among different groups of rural women in the northeast Thailand. The presence of chlamydial antigens in endocervical swabs was detected by ELISA. The prevalences of Chlamydia trachomatis were 6.8% (31/485), 5.2% (24/466) and 6.7% (12/179) in women attending antenatal, postpartum and family planning clinics respectively. The average prevalences of C. trachomatis among hospital-based and community-based women were 6.1% (67/1,103) and 3.6% (15/411) respectively. In addition, the prevalences of some pathogens including Candida albicans, Trichomonas vaginalis, Treponema pallidum and Neisseria gonorrhoea among hospital-based and community-based women were 14.2, 2.8, 0.7, 0.2 and 10.9, 5.1, 2.7, 0.0% respectively. It was concluded that C. trachomatis was a problem of woman's reproductive health.