Vaginal Trichomoniasis: A Study of Female Patients Attending Ijebu-Ife General Hospital, Ogun State, Nigeria

Trichomonas vaginalis is an anaerobic, flagellated protozoan parasite and the causative agent of trichomoniasis. Trichomonas vaginalis is thought to be the most common non-viral sexually transmitted infection worldwide. This study investigated the prevalence T. vaginalis infection among female patients age 16-35years attending Ijebu-Ife State Hospital, Ogun State.A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among Two hundred (200) female outpatients between the ages of 16-35years attending Ijebu-Ife State Hospital, Ogun State. High vaginal swabs (HVS) and urine samples were collected from consenting female patients and examined for the presence of T. vaginalis using both direct wet mount microscopy and culture. Out of 200 female patients examined, 9(4.5%) and 5(2.5%) were found to be infected with T. vaginalis using High vaginal swabs (HVS) and urine samples respectively. The age group 16-20 years had the highest prevalence of 6(3%) while age group >20 years had the lowest prevalence of 3(1.5%) but the difference was not statistically significant. Results obtained from comparing HVS and urine microscopy in this study showed that HVS had a higher prevalence of 4.5% compared to urine microscopy (2.5%) and the difference in their detection was statistically not significant p=0.0001. These results may be useful for health authorities and protection against sexually transmitted diseases. The higher recovery rate obtained by using HVS microscopy confirms its advantage over urine microscopy. Vaginal trichomoniasis is slightly prevalent among the female patients attending Ijebu-Ife State Hospital, Ogun State