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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Do all women attending urban sexual health services need testing for gonorrhoea?

Tim R. H. Read A D , Marcus Y. Chen A , Catriona S. Bradshaw A B , Sriyakantha Beneragama C and Christopher K. Fairley A B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, 580 Swanston St, Carlton, VIC 3053, Australia.

B School of Population Health, University of Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia.

C National STD/AIDS Control Programme, Sri Lanka.

D Corresponding author. Email: tread@mshc.org.au

Sexual Health 2(4) 259-260 https://doi.org/10.1071/SH05029
Submitted: 17 May 2005  Accepted: 8 July 2005   Published: 16 November 2005

Abstract

Asymptomatic women are often screened for gonorrhoea at Australian sexual health centres. The medical records of all women diagnosed with gonorrhoea at the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre (MSHC) between January 2002 and December 2003 were audited and the database was examined for risk factors in all women tested in 2003. Fifteen cases of gonorrhoea were identified among women at MSHC, all had symptoms or an identifiable risk factor. Asymptomatic women without risk factors may not require screening for Neisseria gonorrhoeae in low prevalence populations.


Acknowledgements

We thank David Lee and Ian Denham for their help.


References


[1] Farrell DJ,  Sheedy TJ. Urinary screening for Neisseria gonorrhoeae in asymptomatic individuals from Queensland, Australia: an evaluation using three nucleic acid amplification methods. Pathology 2001; 33(2): 204–5.
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[4] Tabrizi SN,  Chen S,  Cohenford MA,  Lentrichia BB,  Coffman E,  Shultz T, et al. Evaluation of real time polymerase chain reaction assays for confirmation of Neisseria gonorrhoeae in clinical samples tested positive in the Roche Cobas Amplicor assay. Sex Transm Infect 2004; 80(1): 68–71.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed | PubMed | PubMed |