Simon Ejembi
Scientists in the United Kingdom have confirmed the existence of a new sexually transmitted disease called mycoplasma genitalium.
The confirmation of the bacterial
disease, which causes painful urination among other things, as an STD
comes more than two decades after it was first discovered.
A team of fourteen researchers arrived
at the conclusion after conducting a national survey of the sexual
lifestyles and attitudes of British men and women.
The researchers said the study, which
involved testing urine from 4,507 sexually experienced participants aged
16 to 44 years for MG, “strengthens evidence that MG is an STI”.
They added, “MG was identified in over
one per cent of the population, including in men with high-risk
behaviours in older age groups that are often not included in STI
prevention measures.”
The study found that men of black
ethnicity were more likely to test positive for MG and showed that the
prevalence of the disease was 1.2 per cent in men and 1.3 per cent in
women.
It also found that for both men and
women, the disease was strongly associated with reporting risk
behaviours such as increasing the number of total and new partners and
unsafe sex in the past year.
Although it recorded no positive MG
tests in men aged 16 to19, prevalence peaked at 2.1 per cent in men aged
25–34 years, while prevalence in was highest in 16 to 19-year-olds at
2.4 per cent and decrease with age.
It added, “Men with MG were more likely
to report previously diagnosed gonorrhoea, syphilis or non-specific
urethritis, and women previous trichomoniasis.”
Health.com in an article about the study
quoted a clinical associate professor, Raquel Dardik, as saying the
symptoms for women included irritation, painful urination and bleeding
after sex, while those for men included painful urination and watery
discharge from the penis.
According to the article, the disease
has been linked to both inflammation in the cervix (cervicitis) and
pelvic inflammatory disease, which is a serious condition often caused
by other STDs like chlamydia and gonorrhea.
Dardik was also quoted as saying that
around 10 per cent of women who develop PID (which causes abdominal
pain, fever, painful cervix, and pain or bleeding during sex), could
blame MG as the underlying cause.
She, however, said people could get
tested for MD and that it was treatable with the antibiotic
azithromycin, adding that the use of condoms was an effective way of
preventing it.
Dr. Jorgen Jensen of the Mycoplasma
Laboratory, Statens Serum Institut in Denmark, however, said although
the single-dose azithromycin treatment was best for MG, it was not good
enough.
He explained in an article published in an issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases that although
initial in vitro studies suggested that antibiotics of the tetracycline
class were active, clinical experience soon demonstrated their
inefficiency in producing both microbiologic and clinical cure.
He added that two recently published observational studies of 120 Australian and 183 Norwegian MG-positive patients found that only 84 per cent and 79 per cent, respectively, were cured by a single 1-g dose of azithromycin.
Jensen said, “(A study the study by)
Mena et al provides a clear-cut answer to the question of whether
multidose doxycycline or single-dose azithromycin is most efficient for
the treatment of M. genitalium—positive urethritis;
undoubtedly, azithromycin is best. However, it is not good enough, and
additional studies of new approaches are definitely needed.”
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