COMPARISON OF THE PREVALENCE OF CHLAMYDIA TRACHOMATIS ANTIBODIES (IgG) IN INFERTILE AND PREGNANT WOMEN IN ABUJA, NIGERIA
Chlamydia trachomatis (C. trachomatis) is one of the most common sexually transmitted bacterial infections associated with reproductive and gynecologic consequences of pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility and ectopic pregnancy. Most of these patients are asymptomatic and are usually diagnosed with the infection when they undergo infertility diagnostic procedures. Study aims to compare the prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis antibodies (IgG) in infertile and pregnant women in Abuja, Nigeria. This was a comparative study, which included 150 women with female factor infertility (tubal factor) from the gynecology and in vitro fertilization clinic compared with 156 pregnant women recruited from the antenatal clinic. Recruitment of women that met the eligibility criteria was carried out until the sample size was reached. Data on sociodemographic variables, sexual and reproductive risk factors from both the infertile and pregnant women were collected using a proforma. Each of the infertile and pregnant women had 5 ml of blood collected for serological assay for Chlamydial antibody titre using the C. trachomatis IgG kit. The patients’ data were computed and analyzed using the computer software package for social science version 25. A P-value of <0.05 was considered significant. The prevalence of serum chlamydial antibody was 57.70% and 11.50 % among infertile and pregnant women respectively (OR = 10.06, 95% CI = 5.57 – 18.05, P = 0.00). The overall incidence of Chlamydia trachomatis IgG in this study was 33.70%. The incidence of Chlamydia trachomatis IgG was higher in the infertile group when compared with the pregnant women.
