COMPARING TRICHOMONAS VAGINALIS CLINICAL CARE BEFORE AND AFTER THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

ABSTRACT

Introduction During COVID-19, the sexual health service introduced telephone triage to reduce face-to-face consultations but maintain BASHH standards of clinical care. The service does not have TV PCR testing and relies on laboratory diagnosis of TV alone. This audit examines the impact of COVID- 19 changes on presentation and treatment of TV. Method Electronic patient records were searched for patient coded with TV and compared for the periods 01/01/2019 - 01/01/2020 and 01/01/2021-01/01/2022. The year 2020-2021 was not included due to the reduced capacity of services and concerns of data quality during this period. Results 43 cases were identified in 2019 compared to 47 in 2021. All patients were treated with antibiotics as recommended by BASHH guidelines. The most common symptom for females both years was discharge, however males were identified through contact tracing. More patients waited with symptoms and were incorrectly treated for other conditions following service changes due to COVID-19. Cure rates also lower in the 2021 data compared with the 2019 data. The results are summarised in the table attached. Discussion The frequency of Trichomonas diagnosis did not decrease during COVID despite reduced testing overall. The delay in diagnosing and treating TV had increased however with patients having symptoms longer and being treated for other infections first. This could be improved by incorporating PCR testing into local triage algorithms.