Prevalence of Oral Candidiasis and Associated Risk Factors among HIV Positive Patients taking Anti –Retroviral Therapy at Ambo General Hospital, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

Oral Candidiasis has been a worldwide health crises especially in immunocopromised patients particularly with HIV infections. Though the incidence and prevalence of Candida infections have been reduced due to the use of anti-retroviral therapy (ART), candidiasis remains the most frequent HIV associated health disorder. This study aimed at assessing the prevalence of canddiasis and associated risk factors among HIV positive participants taking anti-retro viral therapy. The study was conducted at Ambo General Hospital. Hospital based cross sectional design was used, to identify Candida infections among HIV positive patients who were taking ART treatment. By serial simple random sampling method, 374 HIV/AIDS patients were selected and examined for Candida species infection. Socio-demographic and clinical data was collected using questionnaire and structured format, respectively. The swaps from oral cavity were cultured on Sabouraud dextrose agar with choramphienicol followed by germ tube test for identification of Candida albicans in each HIV positive individual. Analyses of the results were done using SPSS version 20 statistical software. Chi-square tests, odds ratio generated by logistic regression, were used to measure the association risk factors among the study participants. P-value less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant for all tests. Out of 374 HIV positive participants involved in this research, 140(37.4%) were males and 234(62.6%) were females. The average age of the study subjects was 37.48 years old with the minimum and maximum age of 13 and 82 years old, respectively. The prevalence of oral candidiaisis among the study participants was 42.25% of which the prevalence of Oral Candidiasis for female HIV patients was 62.7% and 37.30% for male patients. The prevalence of Candida albicans and other candida species was 26.20% and 16.04% respectively. Marital status (being single), level of education and knowledge about candida diseases were significantly associated with prevalence of oral Candidiasis. Candida albicans was more prevalent than non albicans candidiasis among the study participants. Females HIV/AIDS patients were more infected in both Candida albicans and non-Candida albicans diseases. Being single, uneducated patients and, having poor knowledge about Candidiasis were factors. Thus from Federal Ministry of Health to hospitals stake holders (health professionals) are expected to provide proper treatment, create awareness about candidiasis. In the study area further study should be needed to identify the non-Candida albicans species