In France, few data on prevalence of Trichomonas vaginalis in the general population as well as in high-risk populations exist. We determined Trichomonas vaginalis (TV) together with Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) prevalence, in men and women with or without symptoms of sexually transmitted infection (STI), undergoing CT and NG screening in France.

683 men and 2432 women were enrolled on a basis of either urethral, cervical or vaginal swabs, urine or sperm samples, using the APTIMA Trichomonas vaginalis assay (ATV, Hologic|Gen-Probe) and the APTIMA Combo 2 assay for CT and NG (AC2, Hologic|Gen-Probe), respectively.

Overall TV, CT and NG prevalence in women was 0.7%, 6.13% and 0.49%, respectively, and in men 0.44%, 9.52% and 3.07%, respectively. All in all 20 patients were positive for TV, 17 women and 3 men, with the highest TV prevalence in women of > 40 years (1.59%), while CT (11.58%) and NG (0.87%) prevalence was highest in women < 30 years.

Co-infections were relatively low: No subject was coinfected with CT/TV, most probably due to prevalence in different age groups, and 5 subjects were coinfected with CT/NG, 3 women and 2 men.

The CT prevalence reported here is higher than what was reported in earlier epidemiologic studies in France. The low prevalence of TV may be due to a bias in tested population.

In this study we determined prevalence of the 3 infections in women and men in all age groups and in relation to the specimen type. Furthermore, we provide a detailed analysis of the results obtained from the 20 TV positive cases. Further studies are needed to estimate the prevalence of TV in other targeted populations.