Asian Journal of Research in Medicine and Medical Science

This study aimed at assessing the prevalence, risk factors and antifungal resistance profiling of oro-fungal infections and their causative organisms among HIV-positive patients in Nnamdi Azikiwe teaching hospital (NAUTH), Nnewi, Anambra State, Nigeria; a total of 180 patients who gave their consent were used for the study carried out from January 2022 to August 2022.  Oral swab samples of the patients were taken with the aid of sterile swab sticks, and cultured on Sabouraud’s dextrose agar, Chrome agar and blood agar at 37°C incubation. Fungal organisms isolated were characterized accordingly using Gram stain, germ tube tests, sugar fermentation and assimilation tests, and also with fungal atlas for mold identification. ITS region molecular typing was also used to identify the top four most frequently occurring isolates. Structured questionnaires were used to obtain demographic details of the participants and for risk factors evaluation. Isolates were also evaluated for pathogenicity using haemolysis and enzyme assays. Antifungal susceptibility testing of the isolates was conducted using the disc diffusion method. Data obtained were statistically analyzed in percentages as well as with oneway analysis of variance at 95% confidence interval using the SPSS software version 22.  The oro-fungi organisms isolated are Candida albicans, Candida glabrata, Candida krusei, Candida tropicalis, Candid neoformans, Histoplama capsulatum and Aspergillus fumigatus.  Overall prevalence of the isolates in the participants (n=180) showed that C. albicans was the most prevalent isolate with an occurrence of 84.78% followed by C. glabrata (60.33%). Cryptococcus neoformans and Histoplasma capsulatum were the least occurring isolates with the occurrence of 6.79% and 2.99% respectively. The overall occurrence pattern was C. albicans > C. glabrata > C. krusei > C. tropicalis > A. fumigatus > C. neoformans > H. capsulatum. (Gender distribution were: NAUTH 88 male (48.89%) and 92 female (51.11%); Age range 36-45 years had the highest frequency of 37.22% while age range >75 years had the lowest patient frequency of 0.56% that participated in the study, distribution based on marital status, of which married subjects accounted for 60.56% and single patients were 39.44 % frequency. Distribution based on educational level and profession, it was observed that 32.22% of patients that participated in the study had primary school education as their highest point, and they accounted for the most population that took part in the study. A 21.12% frequency that took part in the study had university degrees and accounted for the least participation frequency in the study. Artisans had the highest participation frequency of 62.22% while housewives’ participation was the least with a frequency of 5.56%. 15.56% of the participants had Hepatitis B vaccination while 100% of the participants were already participating in HAART.