Antifungals susceptibility pattern of Candida spp. isolated from female genital tract at the Yaoundé Bethesda Hospital in Cameroon

Introduction: vaginal candidiasis is considered as an important public health problem worldwide and its incidence has increased nowadays. In recent years, inappropriate and disproportionate use of antifungal drugs, automedication as well as non compliance have caused drug resistance.Methods: this study aimed at determining the in vitro antifungal susceptibility patterns of Candida species isolated from female genital tract at Yaoundé Bethesda Hospital in Cameroon. Two hundred and fourthy five women (age range: 15 years to 49 years) attending the hospital were recruited between January and June 2014 in this cross sectional study. Vaginal smears were collected using sterile swabs from each participant and cultured on sabouraud dextrose agar supplemented with chloramphenico l 0.5%; identification of Candida spp. was performed following standard methods. The disk diffusion method was used for antifungal susceptibility testing.Results: out of the 245 vaginal smears collected, 94 (38.4%) strains of yeast were isolates among which 43 (45.7%) were Candida albicans and 51 (54.3%) were non albicans. The highest susceptibility of the isolates was seen for nystatin 62 (83.78%), ketoconazole 61 (82.43%) and fluconazole 60 (81.08%).Conclusion: despite the noticeable resistance of Candida spp. isolates to miconazole and itraconazole, the results indicate that nystatin, ketoconazole and fluconazole are the drugs of choice for the therapy of vaginal candidiasis in this region

Ethical Guidelines for Military-Based Health Research: an Unmet Need in Africa?

"Background: Achieving the highest standards of ethics in military health research is a challenging but crucial undertaking. The military environment is complex and African military health professionals struggle to maintain a balance between ethics and military ethos. The objective of this paper is to review ten existing research ethics guidelines for their application to the military context; and describe the need for guidance in military research ethics in sub-Saharan Africa.Method: To achieve this; five prominent international research ethics guidelines and five African guidelines were selected using some inclusion/exclusion criteria. Thereafter; designed topics were used in analyzing them for their strengths and weaknesses in providing protection for military research participants.Results: Out of the five international guidelines reviewed; only the Council for International Organization of Medical Sciences (CIOMS) mentions the ""armed forces"". Similarly; the only African national guideline that specifically mentions the ""armed forces"" is the Ugandan national guideline.Conclusions: We conclude that national and international guidelines for human subject research may be too general and not suitable for research with military populations. There is a need for additional guidance in research ethics for militaries in sub-Saharan Africa."