Imagine this: Your car breaks down. You call the mechanic. He takes a look and offers a solution for a fix. “This is pretty common,” he says. “In fact, this issue happens in more than 50% of the cars we see!” Seems too high of a number to really be acceptable, you think, but the car is running again and life is good.
Now imagine the car breaks down again, just 3 months later. Back to the mechanic, who fixes it again. Then it happens again. And again. The mechanic is apologetic, each time providing a new approach and fixing what seems most likely to be broken, but he can’t tell exactly where the issue is coming from. Life continues on this way – never knowing when the car will break again and never confident the proposed solution will last.
Frustrated yet? Welcome to the world of Infectious Vaginitis, a disease that affects 55% of women before they turn 25 and, in certain subtypes, causes 50% of women to have three or more recurrent episodes within 12 months!1 The three most common causes of infectious vaginitis – bacterial vaginosis (BV), vulvovaginal candidiasis (often termed a “yeast infection”), and trichomoniasis – make up 90% of cases and account for more than 10 million outpatient visits per year in the United States.2
Allow me to clarify: the car metaphor above is not placing blame on the mechanic! These large recurrence rates are not because physicians and providers don’t know what they’re doing – not at all! The problem is, a variety of microorganisms can cause vaginal infection (anaerobic bacteria, aerobic bacteria, atypical bacteria, yeast, protozoa, and others), but almost all of them present with similar vague symptoms. Physical exam alone can almost never identify the infectious culprit. This places the need for fast and accurate diagnostics at a premium!
In-clinic diagnostic tools are often limited to testing the vaginal pH and looking at a sample under a microscope to see if the organisms can be identified. These are the same methods used to diagnose vaginitis 50 years ago and very little has changed! Standard culture methods are not widely useful as many of these organisms do not grow well on standard media and results take days or weeks to finalize.
Industry Lab is here to introduce a new solution with our Women’s Health Comprehensive PCR Panel! As a DNA-based detection method, this test can look for all types of bacteria, yeast, protozoa, and other causes of infectious vaginitis from a single swab or urine sample with a sensitivity and specificity of 95%. It also tests for seven common sexually transmitted diseases. Better still, the results are usually available within 24 hours.
ONE SAMPLE, ONE TEST, and ONE DAY can help take the guesswork out of infectious vaginitis and get women the correct diagnosis and treatment. No one should come back with the same infection four times a year; see the whole vaginal microbiome with ILDP’s Women’s Health Comprehensive Panel and turn four office visits into one.
Director of Clinical Treatment
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