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Diagnosis of vaginal infection in pregnancy


DE Botha
R Van der Merwe

Abstract

Pregnant women are prone to vaginal infection. At Primary Health Care Clinics diagnosis of causative organism of vaginal infections is made by using history-taking and assessment of clinical picture methods. The accuracy of these methods is investigated in this study by comparing the results obtained by history-taking and assessment of clinical picture with that which is obtained by examining wet mount specimens under a microscope. Seventy respondents participated in the study. In 48,6% cases, the diagnosis of the causative organism, as identified by the two different methods, were similar. In 51,4% of the cases the diagnosis differed. Candida albicans infection was diagnosed by 10 respondents, while 3 actually had Trichomonas vaginalis infection and seven had Gardnerella vaginalis infection. Trichomonas vaginalis infection was diagnosed in 26 cases, while 15 were actually due to Candida albicans and 11 due to Gardnerella vaginalis.


Health SA Gesondheid Vol.6(1) 2001: 21-27

Journal Identifiers


eISSN: 2071-9736
print ISSN: 1025-9848