Profile of vaginal flora and vaginal acidity levels in Indonesian woman

Objective: To collect data of the characteristic of vaginal flora and vaginal pH among the Indonesian women. Setting: Puskesmas Karawang, Clinic of Batalyon 201 Cijantung, and Microbiology Laboratory of Faculty of Medicine University of Indonesia. Material and methods: It is a descriptive study. The population involved is Indonesian women aged 15-50 years old. Subject population is Indonesian women aged 15-50 years old, who came to some Puskesmas in Karawang District, Clinic of Batalyon 201 Cijantung and Microbiology Laboratory of Faculty of Medicine University of Indonesia from May 2008 until February 2009. The interview and questioner filling were performed to acquire the data of demographic and medical characteristic, vaginal pH examination was performed with dip stick test (Merck@), Gram’s staining was performed to evaluate the morphotype of vaginal flora, and an evaluation for bacterial vaginosis (BV) was performed using Whiff test and Nugent criterias. Results: The subject number was 492, at average age of 30.9 years old with the most frequent age of 26-40 years old (59.1%). The subjects are mostly married (76.4%) and housewives (69.1%). The mean education level is equal to senior high school (46.3%). The mean vaginal pH in this study is 4.8. There are 65.4% women with vaginal pH ≤ 5, and the 36.6% women with vaginal pH > 5. In each group, there are more women with vaginal pH ≤ 5, and significantly shown in age group of 15-19 years old, which 89% women had pH level ≤ 5 and 10.9% women with pH > 5. There is exception for age group 41-45 years, that the number of women with vaginal pH ≤ 5 are less (46.7%) than the subject with pH > 5 (53.3%). The prevalence of Lactobacillus sp. was 63%, Gardnerella sp. is 51.4%, positive gram Coccus was 48.7%, and Candida sp. was 4.6%. The prevalence rate of BV is significantly different by Whiff test and Nugent score, which respectively are 5.7% and 30.7%. Conclusion: The vaginal pH mean in this study for the age group of < 20 (15-19) year, 20-40 year and 41-50 year espectively  are 4.6; 5.3 and 5.6 with all age group vaginal pH mean 4.8. The prevalences of Lactobacillus sp, Gardnerella Sp, positive gram Coccus respectively are 63%, 51.4% and 48.7%. The prevalence of Candida Sp is 4.7%. The prevalence of bacterial vaginosis (BV) by Nugent’s criterias is 30.7%. Keywords: vaginal flora, vaginal pH, bacterial vaginosis (BV)