Haemophilus vaginalis vaginitis after twenty-five years

Abstract

This paper provides an abbreviated review of developments related to Haemophilus vaginalis vaginitis since its original description a quarter of a century ago. My intervening years of interest and research in the field of vulvovaginal infections have served to further confirm the originally published concepts regarding this highly prevalent, precisely defined, readily recognizable, and aesthetically objectionable vaginal disease. An occasional investigator still questions the pathogenicity of the causative short gram-negative bacillus. The only remaining major controversy, however, concerns the taxonomic position of the organism. The evidence is that it belongs neither to the genus Haemophilus nor to the genus Corynebacterium.