Incident bacterial vaginosis in a community-based cohort of women

Abstract

[Excerpt] OBJECTIVES: ln an ongoing community-based BV pathogenesis study, we evaluated time to incident BV (iBV) as well as select characteristics of women with this infection. METHODS: Non-pregnant women ages 18-45 with normal vaginal microbiota (no Amsel criteria, normal Nugent score), no antibiotic use in the past 14 days, no concurrent STis, and a current male sexual partner were followed for 9 weeks. Participants completed an enrollment questionnaire and self-collected twice daily vaginal specimens for Gram stain and future vaginal microbiota analysis. iBV was defined as a Nugent score of 7-10 on 24 consecutive vaginal specimens. [...]