Prevalence and bio-clinical characterisation of Trichomonas vaginalis infection in a large cohort of French patients screened using a molecular syndromic panel for sexually transmitted infections.

OBJECTIVES The aim of this work was to study the epidemiology of urogenital trichomoniasis in the setting of systematic screening of STIs, using a multiplex molecular assay. Besides, the specificity for T. vaginalis detection of the syndromic panel was assessed comparatively to an in-house PCR. METHODS 41,507 samples sent for STI screening between 2020 and 2024 were analysed using the Allplex® STI Essential molecular panel targeting T. vaginalis, C. trachomatis, N. gonorrhoeae, M. genitalium, M. hominis, Ureaplasma parvum, and U. urealyticum. Remaining samples positive for T. vaginalis were stored for confirmation using a simplex in-house qPCR assay targeting the beta-tubulin gene. RESULTS 337 (0.8%) samples (282 patients; 0.093%) were positive for T. vaginalis. The highest rate of positivity was observed in patients aged between 20 and 24 (1.6%), whereas the number of cases over 45 years was anecdotal (0.4%). Prevalence was ten times lower in men than in women. Twenty-four percent were co-infected with at least one pathogen, i.e. C. trachomatis (n=17%) and/or M. genitalium (9.2%) and/or N. gonorrhoeae (3.6%). More than half patients positive for T. vaginalis were asymptomatic, of whom 88% were treated. Symptomatic patients presented mostly with abnormal leucorrhea, pruritus and/or dysuria. Amplification of 160 samples by simplex PCRs showed an excellent concordance rate of 95% (n= 152/160) with the multiplex PCR. CONCLUSIONS Allplex® STI Essential multiplex PCR assay improves the detection of T. vaginalis with an excellent specificity and therefore represents an interesting tool to evaluate the prevalence of this neglected infection.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  Journal of Infection

• Publication date

  2025-09-01

• Fields of study

  Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/j.jinf.2025.106610PMID 40912588
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Prevalence of Trichomonas vaginalis Among Women in the Chinese Population: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

  2025cited by this paper
• Biomolecular Characterization of Trichomonas vaginalis from Spain: Evaluating Genetic Correlation with Drug Resistance and Endobionts

  2025cited by this paper
• Arrêté du 8 juillet 2024 fixant la liste des infections sexuellement transmissibles dépistées à la demande du patient en laboratoire de biologie médicale et les modalités de ces dépistages

  2024cited by this paper
• The influence of the vaginal ecosystem on vaginitis, bacterial vaginosis, and sexually transmitted diseases: an epidemiological study and literature review

  2024cited by this paper
• The Past, Present, and Future in the Diagnosis of a Neglected Sexually Transmitted Infection: Trichomoniasis

  2024cited by this paper
• The prevalence of Trichomonas vaginalis infection among the female population of Iran: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

  2023cited by this paper
• Evaluating the utility of the Allplex STI Essential Assay to determine the occurrence of urogenital sexually transmitted infections among symptomatic and asymptomatic patients in Cape Town, South Africa

  2023cited by this paper
• Multiplex PCR assay targeting Trichomonas vaginalis: need for biological evaluation and interpretation.

  2022cited by this paper
• Evaluation of a multiplex real-time PCR assay for the diagnosis of sexually-transmitted infections

  2022cited by this paper
• The prevalence of Mycoplasma genitalium (MG) and Trichomonas vaginalis (TV) at testing centers in Belgium, Germany, Spain, and the UK using the cobas TV/MG molecular assay

  2022cited by this paper
• Sexually transmitted infections and female reproductive health

  2022cited by this paper
• Trichomoniasis and adverse birth outcomes: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

  2021cited by this paper
• A systematic review of Trichomonas vaginalis in Turkey from 2002 to 2020.

  2021cited by this paper
• Diagnostic de la trichomonose à Trichomonas vaginalis

  2021cited by this paper
• Prevalence of Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Trichomonas vaginalis in Portuguese women of childbearing age

  2020cited by this paper
• Trichomonas vaginalis, endometritis and sequelae among women with clinically suspected pelvic inflammatory disease

  2019cited by this paper
• Chlamydia, gonorrhoea, trichomoniasis and syphilis: global prevalence and incidence estimates, 2016

  2019cited by this paper
• Mycoplasma genitalium and Trichomonas vaginalis in France: a point prevalence study in people screened for sexually transmitted diseases.

  2017cited by this paper
• Trichomonas vaginalis infection in symbiosis with Trichomonasvirus and Mycoplasma.

  2017cited by this paper
• Large two-centre study into the prevalence of Mycoplasma genitalium and Trichomonas vaginalis in the Netherlands

  2016cited by this paper
• A Systematic Review of Point of Care Testing for Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, and Trichomonas vaginalis

  2016cited by this paper
• 2015 UK National Guideline on the management of non-gonococcal urethritis

  2016cited by this paper
• What is the importance of zoonotic trichomonads for human health?

  2014cited by this paper
• Trichomonas vaginalis as a Cause of Perinatal Morbidity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

  2014cited by this paper
• Low positivity rate after systematic screening for Trichomonas vaginalis in three patient cohorts from general practitioners, STI clinic and a national population-based chlamydia screening study

  2013cited by this paper
• Modern diagnosis of Trichomonas vaginalis infection

  2013cited by this paper
• Prevalence of Trichomonas vaginalis and Coinfection with Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae in the United States as Determined by the Aptima Trichomonas vaginalis Nucleic Acid Amplification Assay

  2012cited by this paper
• Trichomonas vaginalis is associated with pelvic inflammatory disease in women infected with human immunodeficiency virus.

  2002cited by this paper
• Diagnosis of Trichomonas vaginalis Infection by PCR Using Vaginal Swab Samples

  1999cited by this paper
• Diagnosis of Trichomonas vaginalisInfection by PCR Using Vaginal Swab Samples

  1998cited by this paper
• Trichomonas vaginalis: repeated DNA target for highly sensitive and specific polymerase chain reaction diagnosis.

  1994cited by this paper
• Trichomoniasis

  1938cited by this paper
• Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology Clinical and Microbiological Aspects of Trichomonas vaginalis

  year unknowncited by this paper

• No citing papers are available for this paper.