Little Known Sexually Transmitted Disease Can Be a New Superbacterium

Bacteria can cause inflammation of the stomach in women and cause inflammation in men. It can also lead to damage to the urinary tract and, in the most severe cases, lead to infertility in women.

Although discovered in 1983, it was not shown that the bacterium had been sexually transmitted in 2015.

Harald Moi, the only Norwegian professor of sexually transmitted diseases, believes in Stavanger Aftenblad (for the subscribers) that up to 10,000 people are infected each year. Me is currently retired, but has been following the disease since the early 90s.

– It's a relatively newfound bacterium, and it took a long time to map in Norway, he says. newspaper.

The British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) recently launched a series of national guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of MG.

– These new guidelines were developed because we can not afford to pursue the approach we have followed over the last 15 years, as this will undoubtedly lead to a public health crisis with MG as superb bacteria growing. Resources are needed to ensure that diagnosis and resistance testing is available to women with the disease, "said Paddy Horner, BASHH member and researcher at the University of Bristol, BBC.

Horner and his colleagues encourage more frequent use of condoms.

Tests for MG in Tromsø

Infections are often misjudged as chlamydia or gonorrhea because the symptoms can be difficult to distinguish. However, the bacterium does not have cell walls, which means that some antibiotics that would otherwise be effective against other types of bacteria do not destroy it. He has already developed a resistance to several drugs.

– Up to 50% of the cases we see are resistant to simple antibiotic treatment, and it's only now that last year there have been commercial tests to detect bacteria and the possible resistance to treatment. tell me.

The bacterial infection is still so little known that doctors have heard of it. In Norway, MG can only be tested in the outpatient clinic for sexually transmitted infections in Tromsø and Bergen, and Olafiaklinikken in Oslo.

According to NHI, it is only recommended to treat if the bacterium has been detected in urine or sheath samples, or if a firm partner has detected the bacteria. Azithromycin for five days is the most commonly used treatment.