Prevalence of Lower Genital Tract Infections Among Human Immunode®ciency Virus (HIV)±Seropositive and High-Risk HIV-Seronegative Women

This study was undertaken to assess whether the prevalence of lower genital tract infections among human immunode®ciency virus (HIV)±seropositive women was higher than among high-risk HIV-seronegative women at their baseline visit for the HIV Epidemiology Research Study. Results were available for 851 HIV-seropositive and 434 HIV-seronegative women. Human papilloma virus (HPV) infection was more prevalent among HIV-seropositive women (64 % vs. 28%). Bacterial vaginosis was common (35 % vs. 33%), followed by trichomoniasis (12 % vs. 10%), syphilis (8 % vs. 6%), Chlamydia trachomatis infection (4 % vs. 5%), candidal vaginitis (3 % vs. 2%), and Neisseria gonorrhoeae infection (0.8 % vs. 0.3%). Alcohol use (odds ratio [OR], 1.8; 95 % con®dence interval [CI], 1.3±2.4) and smoking (OR, 1.8; 95 % CI, 1.3±2.5) were associated with bacterial vaginosis. Bacterial vaginosis (OR, 2.3; 95 % CI, 1.5±3.4), trich-omoniasis (OR, 2.3; 95 % CI, 1.1±4.7), and syphilis (OR, 3.1; 95 % CI, 1.3±7.4) were found to be more prevalent among black women. Our study showed no statistically signi®cant difference in the prevalence of lower genital tract infections except for HPV between HIV-infected and demographically and behaviorally similar HIV-uninfected high-risk women. Reported AIDS cases in women have increased substantially