Human suffering and health care costs due to sequellae of STDs are escalating worldwide, including pelvic inflammatory disease, chronic pelvic pain, involuntarily infertility, and ectopic pregnancies. Project 5 will correlate clinical characteristics of T. vaginalis infections (including behavioral and demographic features as well as co-infections with other STD agents) with the presence or absence of dsRNA virus in T. vaginalis isolates. These two clinical T. vaginalis isolate types (i.e., with and without dsRNA virus) exist naturally and contribute to different outcomes in clinical demographic, and behavior parameters to be evaluated. Thus, as documented in Project 1, the virus provides a marker from which to carry out comparative clinical and adverse outcome studies.
Specific Aim 1 perform a comprehensive evaluation of T. vaginalis isolates with an without dsRNA virus and relate these data to various clinical parameters by a) examining characteristics (genitourinary symptoms and physical findings) between vaginitis caused by virus-harboring and virus-minus isolates in pregnant and non-pregnant women, b) evaluating behaviors, demographic features and partner history associated with the two isolate types of T. vaginalis, and c) establishing linkages between infection with the two isolate types and other STD agents.
Specific Aim 2 will evaluate the risk of adverse outcomes in women with STDs during pregnancy by a) examining infections by T. vaginalis with and without dsRNA virus and b) simultaneously examining and identifying other current infections (gonorrhea, chlamydia, bacterial vaginosis, group B, streptococcus, syphilis, HHV8, and M. genitalium).
Specific Aim 3 will facilitate collaborations with the other four Projects by a) providing fresh clinical T. vaginalis isolates from patients with trichomonosis for Project #1, b) coordinating identification and follow-up of pregnant women with the HHV8 Project #2 by collecting maternal samples and pregnancy outcome data, c) providing clinical data dn specimens for the Mycoplasma genitalium Project 3, and d) providing clinical expertise and additional infection information to Behavioral Project 4.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 26 publications
