SUMMARY
Purpose:
To assess clinical aspects of trachoma and to verify the possibility of using laboratory tests for confirmation of the disease in a school population in Joinville, SC, Brasil.
Methods:
External eye examination was performed in 1697 children aged 5 to 16 years. Clinical findings were recorded according to the WHO grading system for trachoma. Conjunctival swabs were obtainedfrom children with follicular trachoma and normal children and submitted to laboratory investigation of Chlamydia trachomatis (direct fluorescent antibody test, enzyme immunoassay Chlamydiazyme®, Surecell Chlamydia® and Clearview Chlamydia®, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and culture), adenovirus and herpes simplex virus (culture) and aerobic bacteria and fungi (culture).
Results:
Follicular trachoma (TF) prevalence was 4.95% and scarring trachoma (TS) prevalence was 0.65%. Direct fluorescent antibody test was unconclusive and the other laboratory examinations for detection of Chlamydia trachomatis were negative in children with follicular trachoma and normal children as well as adenovirus and herpes simplex virus cultures. Bacterial and fungal cultures were positive in 55% of the tested conjunctival samples and gram-negative rods (41.7%) and gram-positive cocci (35%) were the most common isolates.
Conclusion:
The assessed population has a low prevalence of trachoma with mild inflammatory aspects. The diagnosis of the disease was clinical beca use specific laboratory tests were negative or unconclusive. Although several types of aerobic bacteria and fungi were isolated, they could not be related to ocurrence of trachoma because they had a higher prevalence in clinically normal children.
Keywords:
Trachoma; Conjunctivitis; Chlamydia trachomatis