vaginal HIV viral loads than women

December 15, 2004 issue of JAIDS, Scott McClellend, MD, from the University of Washington and colleagues found that in a study of 400 nonpregnant HIV positive women in Kenya, supplementation with a multivitamin plus selenium led to increased vaginal shedding of HIV, which has implications for sexual and perinatal transmission. Among women who started out with normal selenium levels, those who received supplements were more than twice as likely to shed HIV in their vaginal secretions and had higher vaginal HIV viral loads than women who received a placebo; a similar effect was not seen, however, in selenium-deficient women brought up to normal levels. While supplementation resulted in higher CD4 and CD8 cell counts, the authors concluded that, "The potential benefit of micronutrient supplementation in HIV-1-seropositive women should be considered in relation to the potential for increased infectivity."