Determining the Prevalence of Bacterial Vaginosis and their Patterns of Susceptibility to Antibiotics among Benghazi Women, Libya

Abstract

Vaginal discharge in women is occasionally caused by aerobic bacterial organisms. The study aimed to determine the etiology of female vaginosis and their antibiotic sensitivity pattern. HV culture results, age, and sex of all female patients with suspected bacterial vaginosis were collected. High vaginal swabs were inoculated into MacConkey agar, 5% blood agar, and chocolate agar and then incubated at 37°C in the presence of 5% CO2 for 24-48 h. The antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed by the disk diffusion method. Ten different antibiotic discs were used: Amikacin, Augmentin, Ceftazidime, Ceftriaxone, Ciprofloxacin, Gentamicin, Levofloxacin, Meropenem, Septrin, and Clindamycin. After 24 hours, zones were measured in mm, and zone interpretations were in accordance with the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards criteria guidelines. A total of 215 females were included in the study, the incidence of bacterial vaginosis was 18.6% (40/215). Females between 33 and 45 years old had a somewhat high prevalence (19/40:47.5%) of bacterial vaginosis. The most frequent isolates were 45% (18/40) Escherichia coli followed by 15% (6/40) Strep pneumonia. The in vitro susceptibility tests of the most common isolates showed high resistance levels to commonly used antibiotics such as Augmentin and Gentamycin. Whereas highly sensitive rates were observed for Ceftriaxone 70%, followed by Ciprofloxacin 57.5%. Ceftriaxone and Ciprofloxacin showed the best antibiotic sensitivity. Additional studies are necessary to recognize those bacterial species that cause vaginal infections and determine the susceptibility of those species to recently used antibiotics.