The Prevalence of Fungal Keratits in Selected Health Institutions Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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Date
2015-09
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Background: Mycotic keratitis is an important cause of corneal blindness all over the world.Geographical location and climate are known to influence the profile of fungal diseases. While there are several reports on mycotic keratitis from developing and developed countries, the prevalence of mycotic keratitis and its etiologic agents in Ethiopia few is available.
Objective: To demine the prevalence mycotic keratitis and spectrum of fungi implicated in causesmycotic keratits
Material and methods: Corneal scraping was obtained under aseptic conditions with a sterile 21 gauge needle, following the instillation of a local anesthetic by an ophthalmologist. Corneal scraping was inoculated directly onto Sabouraud Dextrose Agar in C-shaped streaks and incubatedat 25oC aerobically for four weeks. Cultures of mycelia fungi were identified by examiningmacroscopic and microscopic characteristics of their colony. Yeasts were identified byemploying conventional biochemical and assimilation test procedures and using chromagarCandida culture medium (Becton Dickinson) as per the instruction of the manufacture.
Result:Out of 153 cases of microbial keratitis investigated, fungi were recovered from 69patients giving fungal keratins prevalence of 45.1%. Of these 29 (42%) were female and 40 (58%)were male patients.68% and 17 % of fungi were isolated from rural and urban patientsrespectively. Fungal recovery rate was the highest (47%) in age groups of 25-44. Similarly therecovery rate of fungi was higher in farmers in which out of 33 farmers, fungi were isolated in 30patients. Trauma was the leading predisposing factor. A total 77 fungal isolates belonging to 12genera were recovered in this study. Of the total isolates mycelia fungi were the most commonisolates accounting 64 (83.1%) of the total isolates. Fusarium and Aspergillus species were thetwo predominate mycelia fungi accounting 21(27.3%) and 19(24.8 %) of the total isolatesrespectively, with together comprising 52.1% of the total isolates. Cladosporium spp andScedosporium sp accounted 6(6.5%) and 5(5.2%) respectively. Yeast isolates accounted only15.6% of the total fungal isolates.
Conclusion A high prevalence of mycotic keratitis, highlight the need for nationwide study on themycotic keratitis and precise identification of the causative fungus and institution of appropriate treatment strategy
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Health Institutions