New research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has found that a certain type of vaginal bacteria could be protecting women from getting sexually transmitted diseases, including the HIV virus.  The study looked at the vaginal mucus of 31 women using high resolution time-lapse microscopes. Using this technique they were able to test whether HIV particles were stopped or became trapped within the mucus – or if they did not and were able to spread to cause infection in the body.  The study was recently published in mBio, a journal by the American Society for Microbiology.