Epidemiological Study of Vulvovaginal Candidiases Strain Types and Risk Factors Among Gynecological Outpatients in China

Vulvovaginal Candidiasis is a mucosal infectious disease, which rarely occurs fatal infection, but has high recurrence rate. Vulvovaginal Candidiasis often leads to decreased life quality and serious economic burden. However, we known little about the pathogenesis of Vulvovaginal Candidiasis. So better diagnosis and treatment methods are needed to decrease the impact on women's health.

In 2017, the national Vulvovaginal Candidiasis epidemiological survey led by Professor Liao showed that 543 strains of fungi were isolated from different patients from 12 hospitals in 10 cities in China, of which Recurrence Vulvovaginal Candidiasis strains accounted for 15.7%. The most common pathogenic strain was Candida albicans (460 species, 84.71%), and the most common non-albicans was Candida glabra (47 species, 8.66%). In addition, 92 isolates (20.4%) belonged to the new branch endemic to North China. Vaginal symptoms of Vulvovaginal Candidiasis caused by non-albicans are usually milder compared to Vulvovaginal Candidiasis caused by Candida albicans. However, inherent resistance to azoles, as well as acquired resistance mechanisms, can complicate the treatment of non-albicans and often requires a long-term antifungal treatment or other treatments to clear non-albicans.

Given that the resistance rate of different types of candida to antifungal drugs changes over time, common antifungal drugs have selective induction of resistance to fungi, and fungi have cross-induction of resistance to antifungal drugs, it is very important to evaluate the distribution and resistance of Candida species in a long-term . Accurate and effective acquisition of candida epidemiological data to understand the recent status and drug resistance of Candida infection can effectively guide clinical treatment to improve the therapy, and play a very important role in clinical diagnosis and treatment. Therefore, Professor Liao has proposed to conduct a national epidemiological study on the pathogenic strains and high risk factors of Vulvovaginal Candidiasis in China once again, and conduct drug resistance analysis, in order to guide clinicians to better Vulvovaginal Candidiasis treatment.