Absence of a Chlamydia trachomatis variant, harbouring a deletion in the cryptic plasmid, in clients of a sexually transmissible infection clinic and antenatal patients in Melbourne.

Abstract

A Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) variant, harbouring a 377 bp deletion in the cryptic plasmid, recently identified in Europe, has caused false-negative reporting of CT infections by various assays. This report is aimed at identifying whether this variant is present among clients of a sexual health clinic, or antenatal screening patients in Melbourne. Two hundred CT-positive specimens (by BDProbeTec ET assay) from Melbourne Sexual Health Centre (August 2005-November 2006) were tested by COBAS TaqMan 48 PCR assay. Discrepancies were tested by an in-house real-time (Re-Ti) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay, amplifying a 274-bp region of the omp1 gene. Additionally, 1,071 consecutive specimens f..