You are here

Responses

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Health services research
Research Letter
Cross-sectional study of patients tested for STIs using molecular methods in Brazil
Compose a Response to This Article
Compose Response

More information about text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Author Information
First or given name, e.g. 'Peter'.
Your last, or family, name, e.g. 'MacMoody'.
Your email address, e.g. higgs-boson@gmail.com
Your role and/or occupation, e.g. 'Orthopedic Surgeon'.
Your organization or institution (if applicable), e.g. 'Royal Free Hospital'.
Statement of Competing Interests

PLEASE NOTE:

  • A rapid response is a moderated but not peer reviewed online response to a published article in a BMJ journal; it will not receive a DOI and will not be indexed unless it is also republished as a Letter, Correspondence or as other content. Find out more about rapid responses.
  • We intend to post all responses which are approved by the Editor, within 14 days (BMJ Journals) or 24 hours (The BMJ), however timeframes cannot be guaranteed. Responses must comply with our requirements and should contribute substantially to the topic, but it is at our absolute discretion whether we publish a response, and we reserve the right to edit or remove responses before and after publication and also republish some or all in other BMJ publications, including third party local editions in other countries and languages
  • Our requirements are stated in our rapid response terms and conditions and must be read. These include ensuring that: i) you do not include any illustrative content including tables and graphs, ii) you do not include any information that includes specifics about any patients,iii) you do not include any original data, unless it has already been published in a peer reviewed journal and you have included a reference, iv) your response is lawful, not defamatory, original and accurate, v) you declare any competing interests, vi) you understand that your name and other personal details set out in our rapid response terms and conditions will be published with any responses we publish and vii) you understand that once a response is published, we may continue to publish your response and/or edit or remove it in the future.
  • By submitting this rapid response you are agreeing to our terms and conditions for rapid responses and understand that your personal data will be processed in accordance with those terms and our privacy notice.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Vertical Tabs

Other responses

Jump to comment:

  • Published on: 19 October 2020
    Cross-sectional study of patients tested for STIs using molecular methods in Brazil
    • Danielle Alves Gomes Zauli, Head of Research & Development (R&D) Hermes Pardini Institute
    • Other Contributors:
      • Feliciana Lage de Oliveira Marinho, Researcher

    Dear David Taylor-Robinson,

    We are very grateful with your contribution.

    It was a study that we evaluated the incidence of these pathogens on population that had done the molecular test to IST in a big laboratory in Brazil, this is only an epidemiological study. The microorganism have been chosen according availability of tests offered, so it was not evaluated the pathogenicity of each microorganism. Besides that our objective is only describe the profile of brazilian population, and did not correltated any data with clinical treatment. The molecular technology in Brazil is used as confirmatory of clinical diagnostic. The microorganism incidence in Brazil could be different from others countries due to characteristics of our population.

    Best regards.

    Danielle Alves Gomes Zauli

    Conflict of Interest:
    None declared.
  • Published on: 19 October 2020
    Testing for STIs in Brazil using molecular methods
    • David Taylor-Robinson, Emeritus Professor of Genito-urinary Microbiology and Medicine Imperial College London
    • Other Contributors:
      • Patrick Horner, Consultant Genitourinary Medicine Physician and Assoc. Professor
      • Anna Pallecaros, Consultant Genitourinary Medicine Physician

    The Research Letter by Marinho FL and Zauli D (1) is interesting, but it raises several contentious issues. Understanding the prevalence of genital-tract micro-organisms that constitute the genital microbiome (2) is important (3) and the authors were concerned with this in respect of six micro-organisms that were detected by a molecular method (PCR). Whether they give them equal weight so far as pathogenicity is concerned is unclear because they did not relate them to any specific clinical disease. We appreciate that any micro-organism mentioned, including U. urealyticum, might have pathogenic potential under certain circumstances (4), but finding U. urealyticum as the most prevalent (62.47%) followed by M. hominis (9.31%) does not elevate their status as pathogens and raises clinically important questions of whether these micro-organisms, including U. parvum, should be tested for at all in a diagnostic procedure, unless part of a research programme, and, if tested, whether such positive results justify treatment. Admittedl the authors do not expressly state that, on the basis of a positive test result, patients would be treated automatically with antibiotics. Nevertheless, we must emphasize that the use of antibiotics in many such cases would seem inappropriate, not least because it might promote antibiotic resistance, sometimes in microbes of undoubted importance, such as N. gonorrhoeae and M. genitalium (6). Modern molecular technology is a boon, but it must not be al...

    Show More
    Conflict of Interest:
    None declared.