The researchers have discovered that the common bacterial infection of the vagina is in fact a sexual intercourse that can be helped by treating male sexual partners.
Bacterial vaginitis affects nearly a third of women all over the world and can cause infertility, early births and newborn deaths. Researchers said in a report in a report New England Magazine for Medicine.
More than 50 percent of women suffer from frequent bacterial vaginitis within three months after the usual oral antibiotic treatment.
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In an experiment, 164 women suffering from frequent infections in all the recommended antibiotics. Their male partners received either oral antibiotics and a topical antibiotic, or fake.
The researchers stopped the experiment early when it became clear that the repetition rate was 50 percent less in the partner treatment group.
They say that their findings have the key to reducing the high repetition rates of the bacterial vagina.
“This successful intervention is relatively cheap and short and has a possibility for the first time not only improving the bacterial vaginal treatment for women,” said study leader Katriona Bradcheo of the University of Monash in Australia.
