Bacterial vaginosis makes viral shedding more likely
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Women with bacterial vaginosis are four times more likely to shed cytomegalovirus in their lower genital tract than women without bacterial vaginosis, a new study shows.
Bacterial vaginosis, the most common type of vaginal infection in women of childbearing age, occurs when there is imbalance in the bacteria of the vagina favoring certain “bad” microbes over “good” ones. A foul-smelling vaginal discharge is a common symptom of the disease, which if not treated with antibiotics can lead to complications, such as infection of the womb.
Cytomegalovirus is a virus that is easily spread through contact with body fluids, but it rarely causes problems except in immunosuppressed individuals, such as AIDS patients. Studies have suggested that up to 85 percent people are infected with cytomegalovirus by age 40.
In the new study, Dr. Shannon A. Ross of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and colleagues also found that most of the women who were cytomegalovirus-positive were infected with more than one strain of the virus.
The findings confirm past research linking bacterial vaginosis, sexually transmitted diseases and cytomegalovirus infection, and also “suggest that local cytomegalovirus (growth) is facilitated by the presence of genital tract infection due to bacterial vaginosis, and vice versa,” Ross and colleagues write in the Journal of Infectious Disease.
The researchers analyzed vaginal secretions from 52 young, low-income women attending a sexually transmitted disease clinic to better understand the relationship between bacterial vaginosis and genital tract cytomegalovirus infection.
Fifty-two percent of the women with bacterial vaginosis were shedding cytomegalovirus, while 19 percent of women without bacterial vaginosis were shedding the virus. All of the women with bacterial vaginosis had cytomegalovirus in their blood, compared with 71 percent of those who were bacterial vaginosis-free.
Most of the women shedding cytomegalovirus were carrying more than one strain of the virus in their genital tract, and blood tests found women shedding the virus also were more likely to test positive for more than one strain compared with those who were not shedding the virus.
“The findings of the present study argue for an…interaction between bacterial vaginosis and cytomegalovirus infection (and possibly other genital tract infections),” the researchers conclude.
Larger, forward-looking studies could determine the effect of treating bacterial vaginosis on viral growth and local inflammation, they add.
SOURCE: Journal of Infectious Diseases, November 15, 2005.
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