An ‘exploratory’ survey (1,435 respondents) reported in a recent paper in BMC Women’s Health by Crann & O’Doherty (C&D) indicates the widespread use (>95%) of ‘health and hygiene’ products by Canadian women in and around the vagina. The researchers also investigate, in a preliminary way, the relationship between their use and the experience of vaginal […]
Category: Bacterial vaginosis
Presence of BV-related bacterial species in the vaginal microbiota may contribute to the vulnerability of African women to HIV
The association between disruptions of vaginal microbiota and vulnerability to STIs has been widely discussed. Tamarelle & Astagneau (STI) report a study based in a French STI clinic showing some evidence of greater vulnerability to Chlamydia in the case of microbiota not dominated by Lactobacillus crispatus. The more important question of an association of BV-related […]
Boys’ BV?
Recent studies in STIs have drawn attention to the impact of the state of the microbiome of the female genital tract (FGT) and susceptibility to STIs – and, in particular, the protective effect of the hydrogen peroxide-releasing microbe Lactobacillus crispatus (L.c.) (Antonio & Hillier/STIs) (A&H). Such STIs include, not only BV (53% less likely with […]
Bacterial vaginosis-associated bacterium (Gardnerella) may after all have a role in the aetiology of non-gonococcal urethritis
The question of the aetiology of ‘non-gonococcal’ or ‘non-specific’ urethritis (NGU/NSU) has been a hot topic of debate in this journal and its predecessors since before 1951, when it was officially acknowledged in the Chief Medical Officer’s report as an independent category of infection (Oriel (STI)). More recently, a number of infectious agents have been […]
Susceptibility of heterosexual sub-Saharan women to HIV could be the result of cervicovaginal microbiome characteristics
Could part of the explanation for the apparent susceptibility of sub-Saharan African heterosexual women to HIV infection (eight-fold that of males) lie in the bacterial flora of their female genital tract (FGT)? Studies published in STI journal have considered the relationship between a certain state of the FGT bacterial microbiome – especially the depletion of […]