A Professor Clinical Microbiology Mohammed Manga, has warned women against indulging in intravaginal practices, saying that it’s major cause of bacterial vaginosis.
Our correspondent reports that some of the intravaginal practices include douching, use of soap, feminine wash, antiseptic soap used to clean the vagina.
Manga who is from the Department of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology Faculty of Basic Clinical Sciences, College of Medical Sciences, made this disclosure during the seventh inaugural lecture at Gombe State University’s new multipurpose hall.
He presented his lecture ‘A privileged nomadic microbial warrior: Battles in health and medical education’.
Manga made his presentation on Tuesday 23rd, April 2024.
According to him, there was need for proper education/awareness, safe sexual practices and availability of affordable, accessible and convenient healthcare manned by competent practitioners, stressing that it’s required to diagnose and optimally manage Sexually Transmitted Infections.
Manga said, “Bacterial vaginosis which is the most common presentation/diagnosis is largely preventable with proper education/awareness and good hygienic practices. Our observations show that many women engage in different intravaginal practices for various reasons. Douching, use of feminine wash, use of antiseptic soaps/solutions, intravaginal application of perfumes and numerous traditional concoctions are the major risk factors to the development of bacterial vaginosis.
“This is frequently worsened by wrong diagnosis and generous use of broad-spectrum antibiotics among many uninformed healthcare workers. Bacterial vaginosis even though not classically considered an STI, is a prelude to most of them and predisposes the patient to many other complications including gynaecologic/obstetric complications such as cervicitis, salpingitis, endometritis, post-operative infections, pelvic inflammatory disease, premature rupture of membranes, preterm deliveries, chorioamnionitis and postpartum endometritis.”
While lamenting on the prevalence of Human Papilloma Virus and cervical cancer, Manga identified low level of education, multiple sexual and many others as factors.
“Cancer is very high in our setting. Among women who presented for cervical screening in Gombe, almost half 48.1 per cent were carrying the virus which is more likely to be persistent based on their mean age of 39.6 ± 10.4 years. The five most predominant genotypes based on genomic sequencing were 18 44.7 per cent, 16 13.2 per cent, 33 7.9 per cent, 31 5.3 per cent and 35 5.3 per cent.
“Risk factors for HPV infection in our setting were low level of education, younger age at sexual debut, high parity, multiple number of life time sexual partners, younger age at first pregnancy and history of other malignancies. Among HIV positive women in north central Nigeria, we found an overall HPV prevalence was 54.1 per cent and premalignant lesions were higher among those with lower CD4 counts. In comparing HPV testing with cervical cytology for screening among the participants, we observed that almost half 47.6 per cent of the women with normal cytology were positive for HPV. This further highlights the advantage of HPV testing over cytology for cervical cancer screening. While HPV testing detects the virus responsible for cervical cancer, the other testing methods become relevant when premalignant lesions are already established,” he added.
He called for multidisciplinary approach and interprofessional collaborations from diverse areas of expertise is the hallmark of modern microbiology and should be encouraged.
He said, “Connections between experts in environmental microbiology, infectious disease specialists, engineers and applied physicists will be of immense help.
“Patient care in hospitals should optimally utilise available microbiological services and minimize over-reliance on empirical therapy to reduce Anti Microbial Resistance and ensure patient safety.
“Clinicians should trust, challenge and encourage the laboratories and microbial pathologists in low resource settings to become more relevant in-patient care and other clinical activities. I equally implore us to reciprocate.”
On his part, Vice Chancellor Gombe State University Professor Aliyu El-Nafaty commended the lecturer for presentation.
He noted that Manga has paid his dues saying, “Inaugural lectures give newly promoted Professors the opportunity to share the knowledge they have generated. It usually serves as motivation for those coming behind especially young ones. We will continue to organise this for the interest of the students and general public.”