Prevalence of urine, rectal, and pharyngeal Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae among newly diagnosed Filipinos with HIV.

This article focuses on determining the prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis (chlamydia) and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (gonorrhea) infections among newly diagnosed Filipino people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) using nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT). In a single-center cross-sectional study at the Philippine General Hospital, 60 treatment-naïve adult PLHIV were tested via urine, rectal, and pharyngeal samples, revealing an overall infection prevalence of 32%, with 95% of cases being asymptomatic. Rectal infections were the most common site-specific finding, and multisite infections were also noted. The study concludes that the high prevalence of asymptomatic chlamydia and gonorrhea justifies routine NAAT screening in this population, highlighting limitations of syndromic diagnosis and suggesting self-collected pooled specimens as a cost-effective screening strategy.