Prevalence of Trichomonas vaginalis Infection among Female Internally Displaced Persons in Maiduguri, Nigeria

This study evaluated the prevalence of Trichomonas vaginalis infections among females internally displaced persons (IDP) in Maiduguri, Nigeria. A cross-sectional survey of 200 women aged 11 to 45 years, from the four internally displaced persons camps conducted between July to November 2016. An informed consent of every woman was obtained before a sample of the high vaginal swab was carefully and aseptically collected using a well-labeled, sterile, non-abrasive high vaginal swab stick and was immediate inoculated into OXOID Trichomonas medium and incubated for 24 to 72 hours. Results show that Dalori IDP camp had the highest 26.0% and least in National Youth Service Corp 14.0% infection rates. It was found that this parasite is predominantly high in age groups 25 - 30 years with 25% prevalence, while no infection was recorded among women greater than 40 years. We observed high prevalence among married women with 21.6%. Non-formal educated women had the highest infection of 22.3%, while tertiary educated women had only 1.0%. Occupational related prevalence showed that traders were the most infected with 25.0% while students had the lowest infection rate of 7.1%. The study observed the highest T. vaginalis infection among non-pregnant women with 20.8%. It was concluded that there is 20.5% high prevalence of T. vaginalis infection among female internally displaced persons in Maiduguri and as such should be controlled with extensive public health education, adequate treatment of both spouses, implementation of effective screening programmes, sex education, free treatment, and awareness creation to the public, on health implication of T. vaginalis infection.