BRASILIA, Brazil, Mar 11, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Teenage girls have
alarmingly high rates of sexually transmitted infections, largely undetected by
recommended screening guidelines, Brazilian researchers say.
Maria de Fatima C. Alves and a team of researchers at the Federal Universities
of Goias and Minas Gerais and the Family Health Program in Brazil investigated
chlamydia and gonorrhea infections among sexually-active girls, ages 15-19 years
in a socially-deprived region of the city of Goiania.
The researchers compared screening methods recommended by the World Health
Organization and the Brazilian Ministry of Health against definitive laboratory
methods.
They attempted to diagnose infection using the WHO risk assessment score -- a
questionnaire concerning sexual practices, reproductive life and gynecological
symptoms -- and a gynecological examination.
The study, reported in the journal BMC Medicine, found 32 percent of women with
a confirmed infection were correctly identified using the WHO risk assessment.
The gynecological examination fared slightly better with a maximum sensitivity
of 43.5 percent, the study found.
"The low sensitivity of the risk assessment score should be of major public
health concern and implies that it should not be used as a screening tool or a
diagnostic test among asymptomatic or poorly symptomatic women," the study
authors said in a statement.
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