BACTERIAL vaginosis (BV), a condition affecting nearly a third of women worldwide, causing infertility, premature births and newborn deaths, has been revealed to be a sexually transmitted infection (STI), paving the way for a revolution in how it is treated.
The usual practice of treating BV as an imbalance (disruption) to the vaginal microbiome means that more than 50% of women get it back within three months after the standard week-long treatment of an oral antibiotic.
But in a landmark study of 164 couples with BV in monogamous relationships, Monash University and Alfred Health researchers found that treating BV in both sexual partners simultaneously achieves significantly higher cure rates than the current practice of only treating women.
The researchers stopped the trial early when it became clear that BV recurrence was halved in the partner treatment group versus treating only women.
"Our trial has shown that reinfection from partners is causing a lot of the BV recurrence women experience, and provides evidence that BV is in fact an STI," said author Professor Catriona Bradshaw.
"This successful intervention is relatively cheap and short and has the potential for the first time to not only improve BV cure for women, but opens up exciting new opportunities for BV prevention, and prevention of the serious complications associated with BV."
The Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, where the study was conducted, has already changed its clinical practice to treat couples, and a new website for health professionals and consumers provides prescribing information for partner treatment.
The paper was published today in the NEJM - see HERE.
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