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June 27th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda TUESDAY, June 26 (HealthDay News) — HIV-positive women with
bacterial vaginosis, a disruption in the normal balance between healthy
and harmful bacteria in the vagina, are three times more likely to pass
HIV on to male sexual partners, according to a new study.
Researchers from the University of California-San Francisco, said new
developments in treatment for bacterial vaginosis could not only improve
women’s health, but also help reduce HIV transmission rates.
“Previous research has shown that bacterial vaginosis can increase
women’s risk of becoming infected with HIV by as much as 60 percent,” lead
study author Dr. Craig Cohen, professor of obstetrics, gynecology and
reproductive sciences, said in a university news release. “Our study is
the first to show that the risk of transmitting HIV is also elevated.”
In conducting the study, the researchers examined the link between
bacterial vaginosis and female-to-male HIV transmission risk among more
than 2,200 HIV-positive African women and their HIV-negative male
partners.
After taking into account the participants’ socio-demographic factors,
sexual behavior, sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy and women’s
blood levels of HIV — as well as whether their male partners were
circumcised — the researchers found bacterial vaginosis was still
associated with a significantly higher risk for female-to-male
transmission of HIV.
The researchers say it remains unclear exactly how bacterial vaginosis
affects transmission rates.
“We looked at the increased shedding of HIV in the genital tract, but
that was not sufficient to explain the increased risk of female-to-male
HIV transmission,” Cohen said. “It is also possible that bacterial
vaginosis causes inflammation, and that could be a factor.”
It is possible that sharing genital tract organisms between women and
men could explain the higher HIV transmission risk, the researchers
suggested.
“Our findings point to the need for additional research to improve the
diagnosis and treatment of bacterial vaginosis, which is extremely common
in sub-Saharan Africa, the region of the globe with the highest burden of
HIV,” Cohen said.
The study, funded by the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation, was
published June 26 in the journal PLoS Medicine.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides more
information on bacterial vaginosis.
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