Bacterial communities in penile skin, male urethra, and vaginas of heterosexual couples with and without bacterial vaginosis

© The Author(s), 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Microbiome 4 (2016): 16, doi:10.1186/s40168-016-0161-6.The epidemiology of bacterial vaginosis (BV) suggests it is sexually transmissible, yet no transmissible agent has been identified. It is probable that BV-associated bacterial communities are transferred from male to female partners during intercourse; however, the microbiota of sexual partners has not been well-studied. Pyrosequencing analysis of PCR-amplified 16S rDNA was used to examine BV-associated bacteria in monogamous couples with and without BV using vaginal, male urethral, and penile skin specimens. The penile skin and urethral microbiota of male partners of women with BV was significantly more similar to the vaginal microbiota of their female partner compared to the vaginal microbiota of non-partner women with BV. This was not the case for male partners of women with normal vaginal microbiota. Specific BV-associated species were concordant in women with BV and their male partners. In monogamous heterosexual couples in which the woman has BV, the significantly higher similarity between the vaginal microbiota and the penile skin and urethral microbiota of the male partner, supports the hypothesis that sexual exchange of BV-associated bacterial taxa is common.This work was supported by National Institute of Health Grant R01 AI079071-01A1

Repeat chlamydia screening among adolescents: cohort study in a school-based programme in New Orleans

OBJECTIVES To describe uptake of chlamydia screening, determine rates of repeated yearly screening and investigate determinants of repeated participation in an organised school-based screening programme. METHODS The authors analysed data from 1995 to 2005 from female and male students in up to 13 schools in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. The authors calculated proportions of students tested among all enrolled students and among those with parental consent and the percentage of positive chlamydia tests in each school year. The authors used random effects logistic regression to examine the effect of past screening history on subsequent participation. RESULTS 35 041 students were registered for at least one school year. Overall coverage was >30% in all school years. Among all students registered for 4 years, 10.6% (95% CI 9.3% to 12.0%) of women and 12.7% (95% CI 11.2% to 14.2%) of men had a test every year. Among students with parental consent for 4 years, 49.3% (95% CI 44.6% to 54.1%) of women and 59.3% (95% CI 54.5% to 64.0%) of men had a test every year. Among students registered for 2 or more years, those with a previous positive chlamydia test were less likely to have a subsequent test (female adjusted OR 0.77, 95% CI 0.67 to 0.88 and male adjusted OR 0.84, 95% CI 0.69 to 1.02). Chlamydia positivity increased over time. CONCLUSIONS High levels of uptake can be achieved in school-based chlamydia screening programmes, but repeated yearly screening is difficult to sustain over time

Incident Chlamydia trachomatis Infection in a High School Population

Prospective cohort studies of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are logistically impractical owing to time and expenses. In schools, students are readily available for school-related follow-ups and monitoring. Capitalizing on the logistics that society already commits to ensure regular attendance of adolescents in school, a school-based STI screening in New Orleans made it possible to naturally observe the occurrence of chlamydia and to determine its incidence among 14–19-year-old adolescents. Among participants screened repeatedly, we calculated incidence rates, cumulative incidence, and incidence times. Male (n = 3820) and female (n = 3501) students were observed for 6251 and 5143 person-years, respectively, during which 415 boys and 610 girls acquired chlamydia. Incidence rates per 100 person-years were 6.6 cases for boys and 11.9 cases for girls. In multivariable analysis, the adjusted hazard ratio was 5.34 for boys and 3.68 for girls if the student tested positive for gonorrhea during follow-up, and 2.76 for boys and 1.59 for girls if at first participation the student tested positive for chlamydia, and it increased with age among boys but not among girls. In joinpoint trend analysis, the annual percentage change in the incidence rate was 6.6% for boys (95% CI: −1.2%, 15.1%) and 0.1% for girls (95% CI: −5.3%, 5.7%). Annual cumulative incidence was 5.5% among boys and 8.6% among girls. Median incidence time was 9.7 months for boys and 6.9 months for girls. Our findings can be used to refine assumptions in mathematical modeling and in cost analysis studies of C. trachomatis infection, and provide strong evidence in support of annual chlamydia screening for adolescent boys

Bacterial communities in heterosexual couples

<p>Bacterial tag-encoded FLX amplicon pyrosequencing analysis of the V4 -V6 region of the 16S rRNA gene using primers 530F: GTGCCAGCMGCNGCGG and 1100R: GGGTTNCGNTCGTTG. Sequence files are in FASTA format.</p> <p>DNA was extracted from penile skin (PS), urethral (UT) and vaginal (VG) specimens from normal (N) women and women with bacterial vaginosis (BV) and their sexual partners.</p