The association between the oral and vaginal microbiota of South African adolescents.
Bacterial vaginosis (BV) and periodontal disease (PD) are conditions characterised by reduction of healthy bacterial communities in the vaginal and oral microbiotas, respectively. Both BV and PD are associated with an increased risk of poor pregnancy outcomes, yet it is unknown whether PD and BV are independent risk factors or may be interrelated. This study characterises the oral microbiota of South African female adolescents and investigates the association between oral bacterial diversity and BV in young South African women. DNA was extracted from lateral vaginal wall, saliva and supragingival plaque samples from 94 adolescent females (aged 15-19) from a randomized cohort in South Africa. 16S sequencing of the V4 hypervariable region was performed using MiSeq technology for analysis of the oral and vaginal microbiota and BV status was determined by Nugent scoring.