Treating bacterial vaginosis … and other research

Abstract

Tom Nolan reviews this week’s research Is it time to treat male partners of women with bacterial vaginosis? A trial in the New England Journal of Medicine recruited women with confirmed bacterial vaginosis infection who also had a regular male partner, and randomised them to either receive treatment for the woman and partner or treatment of the woman only. At 12 weeks, 35% of the 69 women in the partner treatment group and 63% of the 68 in the control group had recurrence, causing the trial to be stopped early (absolute reduction in recurrences of −2.6 recurrences per person-year (95% confidence interval −4.0 to −1.2)). Important limitations of the study include that it …