Can GBS Cause Vaginitis? New Data on Aerobic Vaginitis.

Desquamative inflammatory vaginitis (DIV) made its debut in the medical literature in 1965, by the hands of Gray and Barnes. In that paper, they presented their findings on 478 women complaining of vaginal discharge. Then, in 2002, Donders et al. described a new entity, referred to as aerobic vaginitis (AV). This term emphasized the clear contrast with the far more common and acknowledged form of dysbiosis: bacterial vaginosis (BV). These 2 clinical conditions are now thought to exist on a clinical continuum of presentations with AV being the "milder form" and "DIV" manifesting as a more severe condition. Recently, I received three separate questions regarding aerobic vaginitis (AV) and the potential role of GBS in its etiology...which lead to the research for this episode. Can GBS cause vaginitis (AV)? Or is it simply a "colonizer", and not a pathogen? This topic and the role of GBS in it has been a hot debate for 40 years PLUS! However, new data published in March 2023 by the ISSVD has contributed to: the credibility of AV as a cause of vaginitis, the pathogenesis of this DIAGNOSIS OF EXCLUSION, and resulted in a guideline for therapy. We will cover all this- and more- in this episode.