A common bacterial infection of the vagina is actually a sexually transmitted disease that can be helped by also treating male sexual partners, researchers have discovered.
Bacterial vaginosis affects nearly a third of women worldwide and can cause infertility, premature births and newborn deaths. It has long been attributed to an imbalance in the distribution of healthy organisms living in the vagina, researchers said in a report in The New England Journal of Medicine.
More than 50 per cent of women have recurrent bacterial vaginosis within three months after the usual treatment with oral antibiotics.
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In a trial, 164 women with recurrent infections who were in monogamous relationships all received the recommended antibiotics. Their male partners received either an oral antibiotic and a topical antibiotic cream, or placebo.
The researchers stopped the trial early when it became clear the recurrence rate was 50 per cent lower in the partner treatment group.
They say their findings hold the key to reducing the high recurrence rates of bacterial vaginosis.
“This successful intervention is relatively cheap and short and has the potential for the first time to not only improve bacterial vaginosis cure for women” but also to prevent the infections and associated serious complications, study leader Catriona Bradshaw of Monash University in Australia said in a statement.