2017
DOI: 10.1186/s12905-017-0362-6
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Probiotics for vaginal health in South Africa: what is on retailers’ shelves?

Abstract: BackgroundProbiotics are widely used to improve gastrointestinal (GI) health, but they may also be useful to prevent or treat gynaecological disorders, including bacterial vaginosis (BV) and candidiasis. BV prevalence is high in South Africa and is associated with increased HIV risk and pregnancy complications. We aimed to assess the availability of probiotics for vaginal health in retail stores (pharmacies, supermarkets and health stores) in two major cities in South Africa.MethodsA two-stage cluster sampling… Show more

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Cited by 11 publications
(9 citation statements)
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“…A limited variety of probiotics for vaginal health are currently available internationally and in South Africa, and few of these contain FGT commensals [18]. Thus, there is an urgent need for the development of additional well-designed probiotics for vaginal health.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
See 1 more Smart Citation
“…A limited variety of probiotics for vaginal health are currently available internationally and in South Africa, and few of these contain FGT commensals [18]. Thus, there is an urgent need for the development of additional well-designed probiotics for vaginal health.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…It is therefore crucial to develop more effective probiotic treatment strategies for BV. Few probiotics are explicitly marketed for vaginal health internationally and in South Africa [18], and only few of these contain Lactobacillus spp. commonly found in FGTs of women with optimal microbiota.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Lactobacilli ‐containing probiotics have had varying success in preventing BV recurrence, with a recent meta‐analysis including 1304 women from 12 RCTs, showing that probiotic supplementation significantly improved BV cure rates , although this was not significantly better than metronidazole treatment alone . However, long‐term colonization with the probiotic has proved difficult to achieve, although few products are explicitly for vaginal conditions and even fewer contain common vaginal Lactobacilli spp . It is likely that the same factors that caused disappearance of endogenous vaginal Lactobacilli in the first place may limit the colonizing success of introduced probiotic species.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…This is not surprising, considering how much they are advertised, especially to customers and patients, who often, as end-users, have difficulties distinguishing between high and poor-quality products. Namely, probiotic products that contain the same bacterial strains are found to be marketed under various beneficial claims on their labels [28,29].…”
Section: Probiotics Safetymentioning
confidence: 99%