Vaginal infections in human immunodeficiency virus-infected women

OBJECTIVE: This study was undertaken to compare the frequencies of vaginal infections among human immunodeficiency virus-infected women with those amo ng human immunodeficiency virus-seronegative women. STUDY DESIGN: Human immunodeficiency virus-seropositive women attending a c omprehensive care center for human immunodeficiency virus disease at the ou tpatient department of an inner-city hospital in Houston underwent rigorous gynecologic evaluation for sexually transmitted diseases, including eviden ce of vaginal infections such as bacterial vaginosis, vulvovaginal candidia sis, and trichomonal vaginitis. Demographic information was collected, as w as information regarding disease classification and degree of immunosuppres sion. Data regarding sexually transmitted diseases, data regarding vaginal infections, and demographic information were collected from a cohort of hum an immunodeficiency virus-seronegative women attending a sexually transmitt ed disease and family planning clinic at the same institution. The two grou ps were compared to determine whether there were any differences between th em in the frequencies of sexually transmitted diseases and vaginal infectio n. Data analysis used the t test for parametric data and the Fisher exact t est for nonparametric data where appropriate. P<.05 was considered signific ant. Statistical analysis was performed with the SAS (SAS Institute, Inc, C ary, NC) statistical software package. RESULTS: There was no difference in age between the 2 groups. The human imm unodeficiency virus-infected group was predominantly African American (80.5 %), whereas the human immunodeficiency virus-seronegative control group was more evenly divided between African American women (45.8%) and Latinos (41 .7%; P < .0001). Although there was no significant association between HIV infection and sexually transmitted diseases in general, there were signific ant associations between human immunodeficiency virus infection and bacteri al vaginosis (P = .02), vulvovaginal candidiasis (P = .001), and trichomona l vaginitis (P = .003). CONCLUSION: Human immunodeficiency virus-infected women had increased frequ encies of vaginal infections, including bacterial vaginosis, vulvovaginal c andidiasis, and trichomonal vaginitis, with respect to human immunodeficien cy virus-seronegative control subjects. No differences between the 2 groups were seen in the frequencies of sexually transmitted diseases.