Incidence of Chlamydia infections in a large metropolitan hospital in Saudi Arabia

In order to determine the prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis infections in patients at a metropolitan referral centre in Riyadh we examined various clinical specimens from 19 234 patients during the period from January 1986 to August 1991; 61% of the subjects were females and 39% males. Of the 19 234 patients tested 2210 [11%] yielded positive results for Chlamydia antigen. Positive reactions from ocular sites accounted for 1361 [61.6%] patients and the antigen was detected from genital sites in 849 [38.4%] patients. Chlamydial infection rate in women was 10.8% compared with 12.5% for men; the highest number of positives occurred in the 26-45 year age group