Microbial Profile of High Vaginal Swab from Symptomatic Women of Reproductive Age Group: Data from Tertiary Care Hospital

Background Vaginal infection is common in women in developing countries and it can be due to bacterial vaginosis, candidiasis and trichomoniasis along with STIs. Aim Microbiological analysis was done to find out the common aerobic nonfastidious pathogens which caused various lower genital tract symptoms in patients of the reproductive age group, who attended the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department at the Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi during the period June 2014 to 2015 June. Materials and Methods All the 100 HVS samples were subjected to aerobic culture on Blood agar and Mac Conkey agar for bacterial analysis. Results The overall positivity for pathogenic aerobic microbes was 27 %, while 16 grew vaginal flora and majority of samples (42) were sterile/did not grew any microorganism. Two HVS samples grew candida while 15 had Micrococci/non-pathogenic bacteria on culture. Conclusion Pathogenic bacteria were found more frequently than Candida. Hence, the practice of empirical antifungal therapy without taking high vaginal swab needs to be revised. The use of appropriate antibiotics along with antifungal drugs may be beneficial.