Absence of Mycoplasma genitalium in eye samples from a trachoma-endemic area of Tanzania
- Jacques Pepin1,
- Sylvie Deslandes1,
- Eric Frost1,
- Aura Aguirre Andreassen2,
- Anthony W Solomon2,
- Robin Bailey2,
- David C W Mabey2
- 1Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, University of Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
- 2London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
- Jacques Pepin, Department of Infectious Diseases, University of Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada; jacques.pepin{at}usherbrooke.ca
- Accepted 5 June 2007
In 1957, Chlamydia trachomatis (non-genital serovars A, B, Ba and C) was recognized as the aetiological agent of trachoma.1 C trachomatis genital serovars D to K cause ophthalmia neonatorum and conjunctivitis in older children and adults. Trachoma remains endemic in many countries of sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and other areas of the developing world.2 Nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT) represented a major advance in the diagnosis of C trachomatis infection among patients with trachoma, cell culture being rarely available in endemic countries. Even using this most sensitive technology, however, one fifth of patients with severe trachoma and up to one half of those with milder infections do not have …
