New urethritis-producing micro-organisms

Mycoplasma genitalium was isolated in the early 1980s from the urethra of men, but not until the advent of the PCR technique was a relationship with NGU fully established by ourselves and others. We showed that 30 (28%) of 102 men with acute NGU had M. genitalium in the urethra, whereas only 4 (7%) of 57 men without urethritis did so. An association with chronic NGU has been shown, urethritis being detected on 7 (87%) of 8 occasions when M. genitalium was detected at follow-up. In addition, ureaplasmas were associated with chronic NGU. in a further investigation, the likelihood that the bacteria of bacterial vaginosis (BV) might be implicated in NGU was demonstrated. Thus, of 17 women with BV, 12 (71%) of their male partners had NGU, whereas of 21 women without BV, only 7 (33%) of their partners had NGU. Conversely, 12 (31%) of the female contacts of 39 men with NGU had BV, that is a figure significantly more than the 1 (8%) contact of men without NGU who did so. However, which BV-associated organisms are implicated in the development of NGU is not yet clear.