PREVALENCE OF VAGINAL CANDIDIASIS AMONGST FEMALE PATIENTS ATTENDING FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTER KEFFI, NASARAWA STATE, NIGERIA

The research work was carried out to determine the prevalence of vaginal Candidiasis amongst female patient attending Federal Medical Centre, Keffi. The study includes all class of female excluding children below the age of 15. Prior to this study, written informed consent was obtained from the research and ethics committee of Federal Medical Centre, Keffi. Candida albicans is an opportunistic fungal pathogen that exists as harmless commensal in the gastrointestinal and genitourinary tracts in about 70% of human and about 75% suffer from Candida infections at least once in their life time. It becomes an opportunistic pathogen for immunocompromised patients, for some immunologically weak individuals, or even for healthy persons. Candidiasis has emerged as a significant medical problem because of advance in modern medicine owning to a discriminate long-term uses of antibiotics, immunosuppressive and cytotoxic therapies. This study assesses the Prevalence of Candida albicans among Female Patients in Federal Medical Centre, Keffi L.G.A., Nasarawa State, Nigeria. A systematic random sampling technique was used to select 100 female patients at the age of 15 years above. Only patients who showed no symptoms of urinary tract infections and who were not on antifungal therapy at the time of the study were included in the study. High Vaginal Swab (HVS) was aseptically collected from each of the patients using a sterile swab stick. The collected samples were labelled appropriately, cultured and evaluated for the presence of Candida albicans. Candida albicans was detected in 30% of the subjected 100 samples