How STDs increase the risk of becoming infected with HIV
Monday, September 8, 2008 - 17:21
in Health & Medicine
Individuals who have a sexually transmitted disease (e.g., genital herpes, gonorrhea, syphilis, and chlamydia) and women with yeast and bacterial vaginal infections have an increased risk of becoming infected with HIV if exposed to the virus through sexual contact. Although several explanations have been proposed, exactly how and why STDs have this effect has not been clear. Now, Teunis B.H. Geijtenbeek and colleagues, at VU University Medical Center, The Netherlands, have described a way in which STDs can increase acquisition of HIV-1 infection in an ex vivo human skin explant model that they hope might be amenable to therapeutic modulation to prevent HIV transmission.