The incidence of candidiasis amongst the asymptomatic female students of the University of Jos, Nigeria

Abstract

A survey was carried out on the incidence of candidiasis amongst the asymptomatic female students of University of Jos. One hundred and three students were selected at guided random. Their first stream urine samples were collected with the aid of sterile McCarthney bottles. The deposits of the centrifuged urine samples were plated out on sabouraud's dextrose agar (SDA) fortified with antibiotics (penicillin G and streptomycin). A total number of 42 positive Candida cases were obtained. This represented 40.78% of the total samples (103) examined. The Candida species isolated included C. albicans, C. glabrata, C. guilliermondi, C. parapsilosis, C. pseudotropicalis, C. stellatoidea, C. tropicalis and C. viswanathii. C. albicans and C. tropicalis were more predominant than the other species. C. albicans had 38.10% frequency of occurrence while C. tropicalis had 21.43% occurrence. The least percentage occurrence was recorded for C. viswanathii which had 2.38%. There were significant relationships between the incidence of candidiasis and the predisposing factors like drug administration (antibiotics and contraceptive pills), cases of pregnancy and previous cases of urinogenital tract infection. Neither the marital status nor the age groups of the test female students had significant effects on the incidence of this disease. The pH values of the infected urine samples had a significant effect on the incidence of the disease.