Opa typing of Neisseria gonorrhoeae strains isolated from patients attending sexually transmitted disease clinics in China.

Background: Gonorrhoea has been one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in China. A clear understanding of its transmission dynamics is important in formulating prevention and control measures.

Goal: To investigate the distribution of opa types in patients attending at STD clinics in China and to evaluate the concordance between epidemiologic data and opa-typing results.

Study Design: Opa typing was conducted for 330 Neisseria gonorrhoeae strains isolated from the patients at 4 STDs clinics in China, and the epidemiologic data were collected as well.

Results: A total of 309 opa types were detected from the 330 isolates. Two hundred ninety-two opa types were unique, and 17 opa types were found in more than 1 patient. Opa typing confirmed all 9 sexual links that were revealed by epidemiologic information and further identified 9 opa clusters and 8 similar pairs.

Conclusions: Opa typing is a discriminatory tool that can be used in epidemiologic studies on gonococcal infections. This technique is more powerful than epidemiologic data to identify sexual links and improve our understanding of the transmission dynamics of gonorrhoea.