title: Bacterial etiology of sexually transmitted infections at a STI clinic in Ghana; use of multiplex real time PCR.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Most sexually transmitted infection (STI) management efforts focus on the syndromic approach to diagnose and treat patients. However, most women with STIs have been shown to be entirely asymptomatic, or if symptoms exist, are often missed when either clinical or conventional bacteriologic diagnostic tools are employed.
  
  
  METHODS
  We assessed the performance of a multiplex real time PCR assay to describe other potential pathogens that could be missed by conventional bacteriological techniques in 200 women attending a routine STI clinic in Kumasi, Ghana.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Although a total 78.00% of the women were asymptomatic, 77.1% of them tested positive for at least one bacterial STI pathogen.Mycoplasma genitaliumwas the most commonly detectable pathogen present in 67.5% of all women. Of those testing positive, 25.0% had single infections, while 38.0% and 19.5% had double and triple infections respectively. Altogether, 86.54% and 90.91% of the symptomatic and asymptomatic women respectively tested positive for at least one pathogen (p<0.05). There were no significant associations (p<0.05) between the clinical manifestations of the symptomatic women and the pathogens detected in their samples.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study confirmed the importance of complementing the syndromic approach to STI management with pathogen detection and most importantly recognise that STIs in women are asymptomatic and regular empirical testing even for both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients is critical for complete clinical treatment.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  EOD (Ellis Owusu-Dabo Research working group, KCCR).
authors.affiliation: Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana; Department of Theoretical and Applied Biology, KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana.
authors.forename: Augustina A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Sylverken
authors.affiliation: Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana; School of Public Health, KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana.
authors.forename: Ellis
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Owusu-Dabo
authors.affiliation: Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana.
authors.forename: Denis D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Yar
authors.affiliation: Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana; Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana.
authors.forename: Samson P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Salifu
authors.affiliation: Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana.
authors.forename: Nana Yaa
authors.initials: NY
authors.lastname: Awua-Boateng
authors.affiliation: Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana.
authors.forename: John H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Amuasi
authors.affiliation: Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana.
authors.forename: Portia B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Okyere
authors.affiliation: Suntreso Government Hospital, Ghana Health Services, Kumasi, Ghana.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Agyarko-Poku
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D058345:Asymptomatic Infections; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005869:Ghana; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D060885:Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction; D009175:Mycoplasma Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000382:microbiology*; D045704:Mycoplasma genitalium; D015231:Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Bacterial / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000382:microbiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Etiology; Multiplex real time PCR; Sexually Transmitted Infections; Syndromic