Conventional and Molecular Based Studies on Trichomonas Vaginalis in Quetta, Balochistan

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the prevailing status of Trichomonas vaginalis, a protozoan parasite causing urogenital tract infections in human beings, in Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan. As no documented study of this kind has been conducted so far, it was designed to obtain the overall prevalence of T.vaginalis infection. Through conventional wet mount technique, its morphological identification by staining techniques and with PCR confirmation. In addition to investigation of age-wise and gender-wise prevalence of T.v, its correlation with reproductive disorders was also investigated through a questionnaire proforma while taking urine samples. For this purpose six hundred (600) urine samples (300 samples from each gender) were collected from the public sector hospitals located in Quetta city. The study was designed in three age groups as G1: 21-30, G2: 31-40, and G3: 41-50 years of each gender. A total of four samples were found positive microscopically only in female patients, whereas three of these positive samples were confirmed as T. vaginalis by PCR using BTUB9/2 set of primers. The fourth positive sample might be the specie other than T.vaginalis. It is concluded that the overall prevalence of T.v amongst females was observed as 0.1%, while the samples from males were found negative for T.v. so the overall percentage in total samples found as 0.5%.