Bacterial Vaginosis and Sexually Transmitted Infections in an HIV-Positive Cohort.

Yazmín Medina-Islas,Claudia A Saldaña-Juárez,Verónica Ruiz-González,Ma Guadalupe Aguilera-Arreola,Cecilia Hernández-Cortez,Roberto A Dueñas-Domínguez,Karina Nava-Memije

doi:10.3389/frph.2021.660672

Yazmín Medina-Islas, Claudia A Saldaña-Juárez + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/frph.2021.660672

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Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) suggest that sexually transmitted infection (STI) surveillance should include other genital infections and not only human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). To monitor the concomitance of bacterial vaginosis (BV) and STIs in HIV-seropositive (HIV+) and HIV-seronegative (HIV–) patients, a prospective study was conducted in a cohort of 349 volunteers at a clinic specializing in treating STIs in Mexico City. Microbiological and molecular methods were used to detect STIs and dysbiosis in HIV+ and HIV– individuals. The prevalence of infection was higher in HIV+ (69.28%) than in HIV– (54.87%) individuals. BV was the most frequent infection in HIV+ individuals, and polymicrobial infections were 3 times more common in HIV+ individuals than in HIV– individuals (31.48 vs. 10.98%). Behaviors documented in a self-administered questionnaire included low condom use frequency in HIV+ individuals co-infected with BV or a STI. This finding highlights the importance of surveillance using routine microbiological evaluations for the correct management of genital infections in HIV+ patients because in the presence of HIV, the clinical presentations, courses, and therapeutic responses of some STIs can differ from those in patients without HIV infection.

Highlights

Worldwide, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) due to Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct), Neisseria gonorrhoeae (Ng), and Trichomonas vaginalis (Tv) account for the highest disease burden in the STI epidemic and have been estimated in detail by the World Health Organization (WHO) [1]
Since generated new data will facilitate the improvement of surveillance programmes on converging epidemics of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), other sexually transmitted infections and bacterial vaginosis, we sought to investigate the concomitance of BV and STIs in HIV-seropositive (HIV+) women
The data generated will be a useful complement to the existing surveillance programmes in Mexico, mainly focused on HIV infection but not on other frequent genital disorders

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) due to Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct), Neisseria gonorrhoeae (Ng), and Trichomonas vaginalis (Tv) account for the highest disease burden in the STI epidemic and have been estimated in detail by the World Health Organization (WHO) [1]. Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is not an STI but is the most common genital disorder that affects women of reproductive age, and its prevalence ranges worldwide between 36 and 43% [3, 4]. Since generated new data will facilitate the improvement of surveillance programmes on converging epidemics of HIV, other sexually transmitted infections and bacterial vaginosis, we sought to investigate the concomitance of BV and STIs in HIV-seropositive (HIV+) women. We compared samples from HIV-infected (HIV+) and HIV-uninfected (HIV–) women collected at the specialized STI clinic in Mexico City using diagnostic tests that are generally not available to the public health system, as they are often expensive and/or geographically inaccessible

Ethical Approval and the Recruitment Process

RESULTS

DISCUSSION

ETHICS STATEMENT