Latest disease in town that you must be aware of

A little-known s3xually transmitted disease that
has attracted more attention lately may actually
be fairly common, according to a new study.
The study found that the bacterium Mycoplasma
genitalium, which is thought to be s3xually
transmitted, infects more than 1 percent of
people ages 16 to 44 in the United Kingdom.
That comes out to about 250,000 people,
according to U.K. census data. Studies in the
United States have found that a similar
percentage of people here are infected with
M.genitalium.
That makes M. genitalium a more common
s3xually transmitted disease (STD) than
gonorrhea, according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. [Hidden STD Epidemic:
110 Million Infections in the US]
Here’s what you need to know about Mycoplasma
genitalium:
Is this a new STD?
Some news outlets have described M. genitalium
as a “new” s3xually transmitted infection, but the
bacteria were first discovered in 1980. At this
time, researchers didn’t have the right types of
test to study M.genitalium, so the connection
between M. genitalium and s3xual activity came
a little later — around the mid-1990s, said Lisa
Manhart, a professor of epidemiology at the
University of Washington in Seattle, who was not
involved in the new study, but has researched M.
genitalium.
For example, early studies found that people who
tested positive forM. genitalium often had s3xual
partners who were infected with the disease as
well.
The new study adds to the evidence that M.
genitalium is an STD, because it found that the
infection was more common in people who had
at least four new s3xual partners in the past year
than in people who had one or fewer new
partners in the past year. In addition, people were
more likely to have M.genitalium if they had
unprotected s3x, and no infections were found in
people who had never had s3x, according to the
study, which was published Nov. 3 in the
International Journal of Epidemiology.
What symptoms does it cause?
In men, the bacteria can cause inflammation of
the urethra (called urethritis) that leads to
symptoms such as a burning pain while urinating
or discharge from the pe nis.
Whether M. genitalium causes disease in women
is less clear, but the bacteria have been linked to
inflammation of the c ervix (ce rvicitis), as well
as pelvic inflammatory disease, an infection of
the female reproductive organs that can lead to
pain in the lower abdomen and pain or bleeding
during s3x, according to the CDC. In severe
cases, pelvic inflammatory disease can lead to
infertility in women.
“Most of the research that’s going on now is
trying to better understand the implications of [M.
genitalium] infection in women,” Manhart said. A
recent review study by Manhart and colleagues
found that the risk of inflammation of the ce rvix,
pelvic inflammatory disease and preterm birth
was about twice as high in women with M.
genitalium infection, compared to women without
the infection. Still, some researchers want to see
more evidence before concluding that M.
genitalium does cause complications in women,
Manhartsaid.
The new study in the International Journal of
Epidemiology found that about 94 percent of men
and 56 percent of women infected with M.
genitalium did not have symptoms.
Should people be tested for it?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not
approved a test for M. genitalium, and doctors do
not routinely test for the bacteria, said Dr. Jamin
Brahmbhatt, a urologist at Orlando Health in
Florida.
However, doctors may consider testing for M.
genitalium in patients who have persistent
symptoms after treatment for other s3xually
transmitted diseases that can cause similar
symptoms, said Brahmbhatt, who was not
involved in the study but treated people with M.
genitaliuminfections.
More research is needed to better understand
how common M. genitalium is among people in
the U.S., and whether routine screening for the
bacteria may be warranted, he said.
Do you need to treat it?
The antibiotics that are generally recommended
to treat urethritis, ce rvicitis and pelvic
inflammatory disease are usually not very
effective against M. genitalium, Manhart said. So
doctors might suspect that a patient has M.
genitalium if he or she doesn’t get better after
taking the drugs typically used to treat these
other STDs.
Doctors could then provide other antibiotics that
are more effective against M. genitalium, Manhart
said.