Researchers from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP)/CINTESIS – Center for Health Technology and Services Research defend the implementation of a “National Chlamydia Screening Program” in Portugal, including new methods of detection and control of this disease, currently considered “a public health problem”.

“Chlamydia is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections. However, in about 80% of cases, there are no symptoms, which increases the risk of transmission. In Portugal, unlike other countries, there is no screening program,” says Nuno Vale, FMUP professor and CINTESIS researcher.

The coordinator of the study “Chlamydia trachomatis as a Current Health Problem: Challenges and Opportunities“, published in the scientific journal Diagnostics, considers that there is no awareness of this problem in health services, and therefore conventional methods (cultures), with waiting times and “low sensitivity”, are used to diagnose the condition, which results in many false negatives, underdiagnosis, and lack of treatment.

Although it is cured with antibiotics, the infection caused by Chlamydia trachomatis bacteria, when left untreated, can result in severe sequelae in the reproductive organs, including chronic pain, inflammatory pelvic disease, and infertility in women. The disease is also associated with gynecological tumors (cervical cancer) and mother-to-child transmission during pregnancy. In men, the most serious consequences include prostate disease and infertility.

“In the absence of a vaccine, the solution is to screen sexually active and asymptomatic women and men. Instead of the traditional culture method, which is complex and can take several days, we should use nucleic acid amplification technologies that are faster and more sensitive, detecting the bacteria in about 98% of cases”, he explains.

As for cost-effectiveness, Nuno Vale argues that “it is much more expensive not to treat these infections, both financially (health care costs, for example) and socially.

In recent years, several countries, namely England, Australia, the Netherlands and Sweden, have implemented national screening programs for chlamydia infections in women up to 25 years old, with results that the authors underline in this study, namely in terms of cost reduction.

In the future, researchers point to the need to study the prevalence and incidence of chlamydial infection in our country, as well as to develop prevention and awareness campaigns about risk factors. In 2020, the World Health Organization estimates that 129 million new infections will have occurred.

This study has been authored by Rafaela Rodrigues and Nuno Vale, from FMUP and CINTESIS@RISE, and Carlos Sousa, from Unilabs, and was supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and FEDER – European Regional Development Fund, through COMPETE 2020.