(Vienna, 09 November 2026) Fanny Mikula from the Division of Obstetrics and Feto-Maternal Medicine at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at MedUni Vienna was awarded the Scientific Prize of the Working Group for Infections and Infection Immunology (AGII) at the 66th Congress of the German Society for Gynaecology and Obstetrics (DGGG) in Munich. The award recognised a research project investigating the impact of vulvovaginal infections on the risk of preterm birth in pregnant women with a shortened cervix.
The award-winning study, entitled ‘Role of vulvovaginal infection in women with short cervix: An observational clinical trial’, was carried out by the Infections and Preterm Birth Working Group led by Alex Farr and Philipp Fößleitner. The results show that vulvovaginal infections in pregnant women with a shortened cervix (cervical insufficiency) do not further increase the already elevated risk of preterm birth, provided they are diagnosed in good time and treated appropriately.
These findings underscore the importance of standardised infection screening and early treatment in this particularly vulnerable group of pregnant women. The research paper was published online in November 2025 in the International Journal of Gynaecology & Obstetrics.
Publication: International Journal of Gynaecology & Obstetrics
Mikula F, Heemann R, Granser S, Foessleitner P, Heinzl F, Farr A. Role of vulvovaginal infection in women with a short cervix: An observational clinical trial. International Journal of Gynaecology & Obstetrics. 2026;173(1):463–469. Published online on 12 November 2025.
https://doi.org/10.1002/ijgo.70625