February 4, 2008 In this summary of her study, Jane Hitti, M.D.,
M.P.H., of the University of Washington at Seattle, examines
study findings suggesting that a bacteria known as
lactobacillus, which occurs naturally in the vaginal flora of
many women (and is similar to a bacteria found in yogurt),
appears to reduce vaginal HIV viral load. Jane Hitti: We were
interested to see how healthy vaginal bacteria, as well as
abnormal vaginal bacteria, might influence the amount of HIV
found in the vagina, for women who are HIV positive. And so we
followed a group of 57 women from Seattle, Washington, and from
Rochester, New York, for up to five years, and followed them
sequentially, and looked at changes in their vaginal bacteria,
as well as changes in the vaginal viral load, and the plasma
viral load.1 And what we found, just to summarize in a nutshell,
first of all, is that only about half of the women at any given
time were carrying the good bacteria called lactobacillus, and
that some women switched back and forth