According to an article published in September of 2019 in Discover, four main STIs are on the rise. These four are not the mainstream STIs you hear about, but nevertheless should be treated with the same caution. One of them is called Mycoplasma genitalium. This bacterium has the smallest bacterail genome known. The CDC first acknowledged this as an STI in 2015, but scientists have known about it since the 80’s.
Targets for infection are the urethra and genital tract and can cause inflammation similar to gonorrhea and chlamydia. Other symptoms are scrotum pain and swelling for men, and damage to the fallopian tubes in women, causing vaginal bleeding and infertility. According to an article published in Pharmaceutical Journal, this bacterium is able to invade and adhere to reproductive tracts through sexual contact. Oral-genital transmission is possible but there are low rates of pharyngeal Mgen. Some further complications can occur in infected people suhc as reactive arthritis and epididymo-orchitis which is pain and swelling in the scrotum.
Mgen is very resistant to antibiotics, and only more expensive ones such as moxifloxacin are able to be effective. Mgen has many symptoms similar to other STIs, so doctors can often misdiagnose and prescribe wrong treatments for it, causing prolonged symptoms. According to the article published in Pharmaceutical Journal, misprescription of single-dose azithromycin for non-specific genital infections has caused selection pressures driving Mgen antibiotic resistance through macrolide resistance. Another factor contributing to misdiagnosis the fact that Mgen takes so long to grow which is impractical because it can takes weeks to months to culture. There fore, the molecular assay to diagnose is the most time efficient but lacks sensitivity and adequate laboratory validation.
Microbiology, Get Cultured! 