Abstract:

Background: It is estimated 70- 75% of women are infected with Candida vaginitis at least once during their life time and about 6-15% of the estimated cases occur in recurrence form. The commonest affected group is women at reproductive age. There is limited data on magnitude and species distribution of candida isolates causing vaginitis among symptomatic non pregnant women at reproductive age in Mwanza Tanzania. In view of this gap this study was designed to determine prevalence and species distribution of candida isolates among HIV positive and HIV negative symptomatic non pregnant women attending outpatient clinic in Mwanza.

Methodology: Cross sectional study was conducted from May to July 2022. The study was hospital based, involving total of 264 participants who attend outpatient and CTC clinic at BMC, SRRH and SDDH. Social demographic data were used to collect using standardized questionnaire. Data analysis will be done using STATA version 13 according to objectives of the study.

Implication of study: This study intends to determine prevalence and species distribution of Candida isolates causing candida vaginitis among HIV positive and HIV negative non-pregnant women attending outpatient clinic in Mwanza.

Results: A total of 264 women with median age of 32 were recruited from GOPD Clinic. Two third of women came from rural 198(75%), about one third of the participant were pet bus 80(30.3%) also most of the participant have primary education 80(30.3%) and about half of the participant were married 118(44.9%) out of 264 nonrepetitive swabs. The most predominant isolates were Candida albicans 74(75.5%) followed by C. glabrata 14 (14.3%).

Conclusion: This study observed that the prevalence of vaginal candidiasis among nonpregnant women in Mwanza Tanzania, was 37.1% which is high compared to other previous studies and the common isolated specie was Candida albicans, followed by Candida glabrata, Candida tropicalis and Candida krusei.