The Incidence of Co-occurrence of Chlamydial Cervicitis with Bacterial Vaginosis

Background and Objectives: Bacterial vaginosis is caused by an imbalance in normal vaginal bacterial flora mainly caused by the introduction of pathogenic bacteria. Failure to properly treat this condition can not only induce abortion but also increase the chance of acquiring other serious infections such as AIDS, gonorrhea and chlamydiosis. Chlamydia trchomatis is one of the causative agents of cervicitis of which 70% is totally asymptomatic. Untreated cases can lead to salpengititis, pelvic inflammatory diseases, infertility, pelvic area pains and other complications. The purpose of this study was to determine the co-occurrence of these two conditions.Methods: A total of 137 patients were examined for both Chlamydial cervicitis and for bacterial vaginosis. Gram stain was used to detect bacterial vaginosis and anti-chlamydial antibodies were titered by microimmunofluoresence (MIF) assay. Results: According to the MIF results, 10 patients(7.3%) had elevated anti-chlamydial IgG and 3 patients (2.2%) showed high IgM titers. Gardnerella vaginalis was detected in 6 patients(4.7%) as the causative agent of vaginosis. There were 3 cases of co-occurrence of chlamydial cervicitis and bacterial vaginosis (30%). Conclusion: Due to the fact that bacterial vaginosis can provide the pre-disposing conditions for cervicitis and its chronicity and the similarity of the cilinical singns of these two conditions, Infections with Chlamydia are often overlooked. It therefore seems necessary to check any patient with bacterial vaginosis for chlamydial co-infection