[Etiology of cervical vaginal infection among patients of the Juárez Hospital of Mexico].

OBJECTIVE

To identify the etiologic agents of cervicovaginal infection in order to establish an accurate diagnosis and proper treatment.

MATERIAL AND

METHODS

From January 1995 to December 1999, bacteriological studies were done in cervical discharge specimens from 6,811 patients aged 13 to 65 years, seen at Hospital Juarez in Mexico City. All patients had leucorrhea, pruritus, hyperemia, and abdominal pain. Statistical significance was assessed using the chi-squared test.

RESULTS

The frequencies of infectious agents were as follows: G. vaginalis, 22.65%, Candida spp, 19.13%, C, albicans, 7.8%, T. vaginalis, 1.5%, Streptococcus group D, 11.78%, Streptococcus beta hemolytic, 4.59%, E. coli, 13.46%, and Klebsiella spp, 2.0%. Less frequent enterobacteria were: Citrobacter spp, Enterobacter spp, Pseudomonas spp, M. morganii, and P. mirabilis. Almost 3% of patients presented anaerobic species, which were always associated with G. vaginalis. Neisseria spp and N. weaveri were isolated in 0.15% each; N. gonorrhoeae was not isolated in any of the patients. Comparative data showed that Streptococcus beta hemolytic and E. coli increased markedly in the past two years (p < 0.001 for the latter).

CONCLUSIONS

The diversity of etiologic agents requires performing bacteriological cultures of cervical and vaginal discharge to all symptomatic patients. The English version of this paper is available at:http://www.insp.mx/salud/index.html.