Trichomonas vaginalis cases presenting at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hosptial, Ghana over a period of 11 years: 1994 to 2004

Abstract

Welbeck A. Twum2*, Clement Opoku-Okrah4, S. C. K. Tay1, E. H. Frimpong1, Charles O. Agyei1 and Godfred Acheampong

The study aims at establishing the trend of Trichomonas vaginalis infections diagnosed at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi over an eleven (11) years period (1994 to 2004). The retrospective study involves the yearly distribution of the infection as well as the monthly distribution relating them to the ages and sex. The mean ages of males and females infected were 28.8 and 26.0 years, respectively. The prevalent age groups mostly infected were found to be 18 to 31 for both males and females. The age distribution of T. vaginalis cases from the high vaginal swab (HVS) records gave a standard deviation of 3.47 and the standard deviation of the age distribution for males from the urine routine examination (R/E) was 5.13. Analyses of records of T. vaginalis suggest that even though there has been a drastic decline in prevalence, the infection still persist and requires efforts to ensure its absolute extinction. The monthly distributions did not reveal any particular month in which transmission of the infection remains constantly high. This suggests that the climatic seasons (rainy or dry/cold or warm) have no effect on the rate of transmission. More pragmatic measures are needed to ensure better records keeping of the infection at KATH. New and more efficient methods such as cultures and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) should be employed to increase efficiency in the detection of the organism in patients. Another study is being designed to ascertain the level of T. vaginalis from 2005 to date.