Prevalence of Candida albicans species among females with symptoms

Abstract

Candida albicansisan opportunistic fungal pathogen found as part of the normal microflora in humans, it is one of approximately 200 species in the genus Candida.Candidaalbicans is the most common type of fungus to cause yeast infectionsand accounts for up to 75% of all candidalinfections.A study on the prevalence of vaginal infections was carried out on women at the effective Medical Laboratory, Port-Harcourt. The Clinical symptoms noted amongst women were itching, vaginal discharge, irritation of the vulvovaginal.A total of 100 samples were collected and analysed, a percentage occurrence of 64% growth and 36%no growth was gotten. Germ tubes test carried out shows that out of 64 samples that had growth, 42 of the samples isolated were positive and 22 were negative.Gram staining reactions of Candida albicans isolated shows that all were gram positive.This shows that Candida albicanswas prevalent. Antifungal susceptibility test showed susceptibility of 42%, this was observed in Nystatin, which indicates that it’s a better antifungal drug in the treatment of Candida albican infection above other antifungal drugs used for the analysis which include Griseoflucin, Fluconazole, Sivoketonazole.The fact that a patient presents symptoms of candidiasis does not mean that the infection is caused by Candida albicans. Proper diagnosis is required to ascertain the main cause of the infection.