Response: Re: Effect of Antibiotics on Vulvovaginal Candidiasis: A Metronet Study

To the Editor: We appreciate the interest of Dr. Tandon¹ in our recent paper on the association of antibiotic use with subsequent vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC).² As we stated in our paper, the small sample size limits our ability to determine the effects of antibiotic type, dosage, or duration on the primary outcomes. In fact, the 6 women who later developed symptomatic VVC were on 6 different antibiotics, and 1 was on 2 antibiotics, with range of antibiotic duration of 5 to 10 days. Because the majority of our study participants had respiratory infections, penicillins (eg, amoxicillin or augmentin) and macrolides (eg, azithromycin) were the most frequently prescribed antibiotics, with less usage of quinolones or cephalosporins. Although it is likely that each type of antibiotic has a different effect on the vaginal flora, we were not able to find any distinctive pattern of risk by antibiotic used or the duration of antibiotic therapy. Furthermore, the association of VVC with particular antibiotics has been indirectly indicated by epidemiologic studies^3,4 rather than directly supported by mycological studies, which are sorely needed.