I had been looking for Spanish data so I could mention here how the subject of antibiotic resistance in the damned bacteria Mycoplasma genitalium is progressing, which has not been an easy task. Let me remind you a bit why this is important……
- Mycoplasma genitalium is a very real reminder that we now face sexually transmitted infections that are becoming impossible to treat
- In Spain the only antibiotics that are approved as treatment for this bacteri are the first and second line ones.
- And yet, they also can fail sometimes, a situation that leaves us having to import antibiotics from France etc, a complete disaster for the patient and also their sexual partners.
An Australian company (SpeeDx) has developed a tool that tells us whether first line treatment will work or not, which really saves us time. It works by looking at the bacteria’s DNA to see if there are any genes present that are typical of antibiotic resistant bugs (resistant to doxycycline or azithromycin)
This is amazing! But the truth is that I personally would prefer a tool that tells me if an infection is going to be resistant to moxifloxacin (the second line of treatment) because my intuition tells me that these cases of MULTIRESITANCE are on the up….
In this study which was done with the lead investigator being from the teaching hospital Hospital Vall d’Hebrón, in Barcelona they used the same system that the Austalians had invented but this time they looked for resistance to MOXIFLOXACIN. It is the most up to date study with Spanish data that I found right now.
- 8,8% of all strains of Mycoplasma genitalium that were studied were found to be resistant to moxifloxacin
This means that, as of Summer 2019, 1 in 11 people with Mycoplasma genitalium in Spain will have no locally available treatment options.
You may think I’m joking, but quite honestly we’ve exhausted all antibiotic options in some infections. This is why it’s so important to include this bacteria in your check-ups and not to self medicate with antibiotics “just in case”. Please get in touch if you want to talk more about this infection.
I include this bacteria in check ups we do in urine / from the vagina and also in the rectal infection package. If you click on these links they will take you to my shop
Fernández-Huerta M, et al 2019. Multicenter clinical evaluation of a novel multiplex real-time PCR (qPCR) assay for detection of fluoroquinolone resistance in Mycoplasma genitalium. J Clin Microbiol 57:e00886-19. https://doi.org/10 .1128/JCM.00886-19.
Sweeney EL et al. Evaluation of the SpeeDx MG parC (Beta) PCR Assay for Rapid Detection of Mycoplasma genitalium Quinolone Resistance-Associated Mutations. J Clin Microbiol. 2020 Sep 22;58(10):e01432-20. doi: 10.1128/JCM.01432-20. PMID: 32719034; PMCID: PMC7512155.