Trichomonas vaginalis Is Associated with Pelvic Inflammatory Disease in Women Infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus

Abstract

We assessed the association between the causative agents of vaginal discharge and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) among women attending a rural sexually transmitted disease clinic in South Africa; the role played by coinfection with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) was studied. Vaginal and cervical specimens were obtained to detect Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Chlamydia trachomatis, Trichomonas vaginalis, and bacterial vaginosis. HIV-1 infection was established by use of serum antibody tests. A total of 696 women with vaginal discharge were recruited, 119 of whom had clinical PID. Patients with trichomoniasis had a significantly higher risk of PID than did women without trichomoniasis (P=.03). PID was not associated with any of the other pathogens. When the patients were stratified according to HIV-1 status, the risk of PID in HIV-1-infected patients with T. vaginalis increased significantly (P=.002); no association was found in patients without HIV-1. T. vaginalis infection of the lower genital tract is associated with a clinical diagnosis of PID in HIV-1-infected women.

Trichomonas vaginalis and Tritrichomonas foetus: interaction with fibroblasts and muscle cells - new insights into parasite-mediated host cell cytotoxicity

“…Each year, 160-180 million people are infected with T. vaginalis worldwide (McClelland 2008). T. vaginalis infection is associated with serious adverse health consequences in women, including infertility (El-Shazly et al 2001), atypical pelvic inflammatory disease (Moodley et al 2002), pre-term delivery and delivery of low birth weight infants (Cotch et al 1997) and predisposition to cervical neoplasia (Viikki et al 2000). The effects of Tritrichomonas foetus infection in cows vary from mild vaginitis or cervicitis to endometritis, abortion and infertility (Parsonson et al 1976, Anderson et al 1996.…”

Hysterosalpingographic Tubal Abnormalities in Retroviral (HIV) Positive and Negative Infertile Females

“…HIV is also reported to reduce the fertility in women and men due to co-infection with the STIs, with resultant tubal factor infertility; weight loss related anovulation/amenorrhoea, male hypogonadism and impaired spermatogenesis [16]. Also, infertility is suggested to be a risk factor for the HIV acquisition, since the couples with a fertility problem are likely to face extramarital relationships, polygamous unions and divorce, which are all known risk factors for the HIV infection [10,17].…”

Essential Dynamics on Different Biological Systems: Fis Protein, tvMyb1 Transcriptional Factor and BACE1 Enzyme

“…T. vaginalis infection may cause adverse health consequences, including preterm abort and pelvic inflammatory disease in women, as well as infertility and increased incidence of human immunodeficiency virus transmission in women and men (Cotch et al, 1997;Laga et al, 1993;Martinez-Garcia et al, 1996;Moodley et al, 2002;Sherman et al, 1987;Sorvillo et al, 1998).…”