Background: The conventional therapy of recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC) entails a combination of systemic and local antifungal agents or long course of systemic anti-fungal agent followed by maintenance therapy. Systemic antifungal agents have its limitations, contraindications and may be associated with significant health problems. Moreover, some mycological resistance secondary to its long use was reported. Bee-honey and yogurt were reported to have both antibacterial and antifungal activities. Thus, the aim of the present study is to evaluate the clinical and mycological cure rates of a novel mixture consisting of Bee-honey and Yogurt for treating patients with RVVC.
Materials and methods: This is a prospective comparative study which included 129 patients with RVVC. The participants were allocated into study group (n=82) who received a mixture of Bee-honey and yogurt vaginally and control group (n=47) who received a combination of systemic and vaginal anti-fungal agents. The Chi-square test was used to evaluate the clinical and mycological cure rates and the side-effects of both modes of therapy.
Results: The clinical cure rate was significantly higher in the study than the control group (87.8% vs 72.3% respectively) while the mycological cure rate was higher in the control than the study group (91.5% vs 76.9% respectively). The mixture was cheaper, and much safer than the antifungal agents.
Conclusions: The mixture of Bee-honey and yogurt produced a high clinical cure rate and a reasonable mycological cure rate. It can be used as a complementary or an alternative to antifungal therapy if it is contraindicated.