PITTSBURGH, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- A pregnant woman with bacterial vaginosis, a vaginal infection, increases her risk of preterm birth, but her partner also plays a role, a U.S. study found.
Bacterial vaginosis, a common gynecological infection characterized by an increase in vaginal alkalinity, affects up to 50 percent of women in some populations, explained Dr. Hyagriv Simhan, of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Simhan and colleagues considered 325 women who were in their first trimester of pregnancy and found 40 percent were white female/white male partnerships, 11 percent were white female/black male couples, 3.7 percent were black female/white male couples, and 46 percent were black female/black male partnerships.
Generally, bacterial vaginosis was less common among white women compared to black women in the group, but partner race also showed an influence on bacterial vaginosis risk.
The findings, presented at the 34th annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society for Obstetrics and Gynecology in Boston, showed that when one partner is black -- whether male or female -- risk of bacterial vaginosis went up two-fold.
Preterm birth contributes to more than a third of U.S. infant deaths.
