Trichomonas vaginalis infection among married women of Andaman and Nicobar islands

Abstract

Background

Trichomoniasis is a common sexually transmitted infection among both men and women, worldwide. The prevalence of trichomoniasis among married women in the remote Indian population is more important, yet they rarely sought treatment. This was the first-ever study conducted on the prevalence of Trichomonas vaginalis (TV) in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was undertaken among married women in the Andaman Islands, India from August 2020 to July 2022. Samples were collected from the suspected women attending community health centres after obtaining informed consent. PCR assay for TV was performed using specific primers and conditions. Further, sequencing was carried out and pair-wise genetic analysis was done using MEGA version 11 to find the TV strain.

Results

Overall, 0.9% (nine out of 1000) TV cases were reported. The majority of infected population was below high school degrees (5/9) and was unemployed (7/9). Infected individuals never had a history of a sexually transmitted illness. Two of the ladies reported dyspareunia, and one of them had persistent pelvic pain. Of these, most of them had pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and abnormal vaginal discharge. The pair-wise genetic distance analysis found the strain found on this island was TV G3.

Conclusions

From our knowledge, this surveillance study was conducted first time in the Andaman and Nicobar Island. The detection of the TV G3 strain may be essential for understanding the prevalence of TV infection and their associated risk factors. More research is needed to understand the TV-associated risk factors among suspected patients in hospital settings.

Keywords:

• Trichomonas vaginalis
• G3
• women
• prevalence

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Director General and Secretory, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for the support in this study.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the Institutional Human Ethical Committee, ICMR-Regional Medical Research Centre, Port Blair (proposal 3 approved on 29 June 2017).

Author contributions

Conceptualisation: NM and RP; methodology: NM, AV and RP; data curation: RP; writing – original draft preparation: AV; writing – review and editing: NM, RP, NB and AV.

Consent form

Informed consent was obtained from each individual enrolled in this study. A written informed consent form was obtained before the sample collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Director General and Secretory, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for the support in this study.