Background:
Chlamydia and gonorrhoea are
the two most common sexually transmissible infections (STI) among men who have
sex with men (MSM) worldwide. Infections at the pharynx and rectum are usually
asymptomatic; however, the natural history of these infections remains unknown.
The aim of this study is to estimate the duration of both infections at the
extragenital sites from published epidemiological cohort studies.
Methods:
English peer-reviewed
articles were searched from 1 January 2000 to 12 March 2015 in three electronic
databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE and Cochrane Central). The prevalence-to-incidence
ratio from each study was calculated to reflect the duration of each infection.
This review followed the PRISMA guidelines and was registered in PROSPERO
(CRD42014007087).
Results:
There were 2585 records
identified, with 1721 abstracts and 52 full-text articles screened, resulting
in four studies fulfilling the inclusion criteria. Pharyngeal gonorrhoea
(114-138 days) had a shorter duration of infection than rectal gonorrhoea (346
days). In addition, chlamydia had a longer duration of infection at the pharynx
(667 days) and rectum (579 days) compared with gonorrhoea infection.
Conclusions:
Gonorrhoea has a shorter
duration of infection than chlamydia, suggesting that annual STI screening will
be more effective at diagnosing chlamydia than gonorrhoea. The current STI
guidelines recommend screening gonorrhoea and chlamydia at least once a year in
MSM; it would only detect ~30% of incident pharyngeal gonorrhoea cases, with a
mean duration of 4 months.
Purchase full article at: http://goo.gl/jCI3tr
By:
Huffam A,Marcus Y. Chen A B, Catriona S. Bradshaw A B and Christopher K. Fairley A B
A Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, Alfred Health, 580 Swanston Street, Carlton, Melbourne, Vic. 3053, Australia. B Central Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Vic. 3004, Australia. C Corresponding author. Email: echow@mshc.org.au
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