Chlamydia trachomatis infection prevalence and serovar distribution in a high-density urban area in the North of Italy

Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) is the causative agent of the most common bacterial sexually transmitted infection (STI) worldwide. CT molecular typing plays a fundamental role in finding associations between serovars and epidemiological features and can be crucial for therapeutic appropriateness. The aim of this study was to assess CT infection prevalence and serovar distribution in a high density urban area in the North of Italy, by comparing different groups of subjects divided on the basis of care providers they referred to. From January 2011 to May 2014, data about all the urogenital and extra-genital samples (anorectal and/or pharyngeal swabs) submitted to the Microbiology of St. Orsola Hospital in Bologna for CT detection were collected. The specimens were obtained from three different groups of patients: subjects attending the STI Outpatients Clinic of the Hospital, patients attending gynecological clinics or people referring to general practitioners. All the samples were processed by a real-time PCR (Versant CT/GC DNA 1.0 Assay; Siemens) and in case of positivity, molecular genotyping based on RFLP analysis was performed. A P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Overall CT infection prevalence was 8.1% with significant differences between sub-groups (P