Trichomonas vaginalis a risk factor for cervical cancer

Trichomonas vaginalis is the human parasite most widely spread in the world. The national statistics shows that it occurs in 20 to 25% of the women in Romania. The latest research studies (Carlton, J.M. et al, 2007) have proved that persistent infections with Trichomonas vaginalis increase the risk of HIV infection, cervical cancer, and serious complications in premature births. This study was conducted over a period of five years (2004 - 2008). From the 9117 cases examined, 220 were diagnosed with inflammations caused by Trichomonas vaginalis. Approximately 6.4% of the infected cases exhibited cellular atypia. The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence of atypia associated with trichomoniasis in the cervicovaginal smears examined during the Babes-Papanicolaou tests. Another important objective was to correlate different aspects of the pathogenic mechanism of the parasite with the information of the Trichomonas vaginalis genome, as well as morphopathological characteristics of the cervicovaginal cells