Implications of Trichomonas vaginalis Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing on Medical Training and Practice

We read with great interest Ginocchio and colleagues ’ recentstudy on the prevalence of Trichomonas vaginalis infection and coinfection with Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonor-rhoeae (1). Based on results from nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT) of discarded urogenital samples from 7,593 U.S. women aged 18 to 89 years (recruited in 21 states; the testing protocol included the use of the APTIMA Combo 2 assay from Gen-Probe), the overall prevalences for T. vaginalis, C. trachomatis, and N. gonorrhoeae were estimated to be 8.7%, 6.7%, and 1.7%, respectively. The study found that the highest T. vaginalis prevalence was among women aged 40 years and older and that the coinfection rates were 1.3 % for C. trachoma-tis/T. vaginalis, 0.61 % for C. trachomatis/N. gonorrhoeae, and 0.24 % for N. gonorrhoeae/T. vaginalis (1). The authors con-cluded that, while the frequencies of coinfections were relatively low, women who are being screened for C. trachomatis/N. gonorrhoeae