Genital Mycoplasma Species

Genital Mycoplasma Species

M. hominis and Mycoplasma genitalis are the genital Mycoplasma species, which inhabit the mucosa of the urogenital tract.

Mycoplasma hominis

M. hominis is a facultative anaerobe and is relatively a fast-grow-ing Mycoplasma, which grows within 1–4 days. The bacteria meta-bolize arginine but do not utilize glucose. M. hominis typically produces large fried-egg appearance colonies on Mycoplasma medium. Inhibition of the growth of the bacteria with specific antisera to M. hominis is used to differentiate it from other geni-tal mycoplasmas. The clinical manifestations by genital myco-plasmas vary depending on the type of infection:

·           M. hominis is associated with infection of genitourinary tractand reproductive disease. M. hominis causes genital infection, which may result in diverse manifestation, such as salpingi-tis, pelvic abscess, puerperal infection, septic abortion.

·           It also causes nongenital infections, such as septic arthritis, peritonitis, septic thrombophlebitis, and brain abscess.

·           It may also cause primary atypical pneumonia and meningi-tis in newborns.

 The incidence of colonization by genital mycoplasmas increases after puberty and is related to the sexual activity. M. hominis col-onizes in approximately 15% of sexually active men and women, while Ureaplasma colonizes 45–70% of sexually active women.

        M. hominis organisms unlike other mycoplasmas are resistant toerythromycin and occasionally to tetracyclines. Clindamycin is use-ful to treat infections caused by such resistant strains of M. hominis.

Mycoplasma genitalis

M. genitalis has also been implicated as a cause of nongonococ-cal urethritis and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). M. genitalis is primarily a pathogen of the gastrointestinal tract, which can cause occasional infection in the genitourinary and respiratory tract. It is a very difficult organism to be isolated by culture. Their isolation may require more than 2–4 months of incubation.

    These genital Mycoplasma species have been isolated more fre-quently from African American than from white men and women. Colonization of infants by Mycoplasma species usually occurs dur-ing passage of the baby through the birth canal. Colonization with these genital mycoplasmas occurs only up to 2 years.

        Since genital mycoplasmas have been transmitted sexually, avoidance of sexual activity or the use of proper safety proce-dures prevents the disease caused by these genital mycoplasmas.