• CD4 count [ Time Frame: assessed at 10 and 25 weeks ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  

• Bacterial vaginosis cure rate [ Time Frame: assesed at week 2, 5, 15, 25 ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  
• Total serum IgE levels [ Time Frame: baseline and at 10 weeks ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  
• Serum cytokine levels [ Time Frame: baseline and at 10 weeks ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  
• Diarrhea incidence and length of episodes [ Time Frame: 25 weeks ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  

Background: Two third of all people infected with HIV live in Sub-Saharan Africa. A region also affected with a great burden of other infectious diseases. Relatively few patients have access to anti-retroviral treatment and many suffer from debilitating diarrhea that causes their immune system to deteriorate. Prevention of infectious diseases among HIV patients is of great importance and makes the immune system deteriorate less rapidly. The track record for probiotics to prevent and alleviate infectious diarrhea is impressive. So, the use of probiotics among HIV patients is a logical step and could be an adjunctive tool for physicians to halt the decline of the CD4 count.

Another important application for the use of probiotics is in the treatment of bacterial vaginosis (BV). BV is a vaginal infection, caused by a group of pathogens, which is extremely common, and estimated to occur in 50% of black African women. In the US, the prevalence is 29%, which again is extremely high. This infection makes a woman more vulnerable to contracting sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Having BV is also a risk factor to transmit HIV to a partner or a newborn. Conventional antibiotic treatment of BV has a cure rate of 40% among black African women. A recent study shows that combining the probiotic strains Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1 and Lactobacillus reuteri RC-14 with an antibiotic has a cure rate of 88%.