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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Symptomatic Trichomonas vaginalis infection in the setting of severe nitroimidazole allergy: successful treatment with boric acid

Christina Muzny A C , Arti Barnes B and Leandro Mena B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Alabama at Birmingham, ZRB 242, 1530 3rd Avenue South, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA.

B Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Mississippi Medical Center, 2500 North State Street, Jackson, MS 39216, USA.

C Corresponding author. Email: cmuzny@uab.edu

Sexual Health 9(4) 389-391 https://doi.org/10.1071/SH11114
Submitted: 11 August 2011  Accepted: 28 November 2011   Published: 20 January 2012

Abstract

This report describes a patient with symptomatic Trichomonas vaginalis infection who was unable to tolerate nitroimidazole drugs because of severe hypersensitivity, for which desensitisation was not possible. Use of intravaginal clotrimazole, intravaginal paromomycin, intravaginal furazolidone, povidone–iodine douches, and oral nitazoxanide were unsuccessful in eradicating the patient’s T. vaginalis infection. A 2-month course of intravaginal topical boric acid subsequently achieved a complete symptomatic cure and the patient remained T. vaginalis wet prep- and culture-negative 60 days after treatment.

Additional keywords: clotrimazole, furazolidone, hypersensitivity, nitazoxanide, povidone–iodine.


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