Antifungals Susceptibility Pattern of Isolated from Female Genital Tract at the Yaoundé Bethesda Hospital in Cameroon

Introduction: Vaginal candidiasis is considered as an important public health problem worldwide and its incidence has increased nowadays. In recent years, inappropriate and disproportionate use of antifungal drugs, automedication as well as non compliance have caused drug resistance.

Methods: This study aimed at determining the antifungal susceptibility patterns of isolated from female genital tract at in Cameroon. Two hundred and fourthy five women (age range: 15 years to 49 years) attending the hospital were recruited between January and June 2014 in this cross sectional study. Vaginal smears were collected using sterile swabs from each participant and cultured on sabouraud dextrose agar supplemented with chloramphenico l 0.5%; identification of was performed following standard methods. The disk diffusion method was used for antifungal susceptibility testing.

Results: Out of the 245 vaginal smears collected, 94 (38.4%) strains of yeast were isolates among which 43 (45.7%) were and 51 (54.3%) were non albicans. The highest susceptibility of the isolates was seen for nystatin 62 (83.78%), ketoconazole 61 (82.43%) and fluconazole 60 (81.08%).

Conclusion: Despite the noticeable resistance of isolates to miconazole and itraconazole, the results indicate that nystatin, ketoconazole and fluconazole are the drugs of choice for the therapy of vaginal candidiasis in this region.