United Kingdom: this “flesh-eating” bacterium worries experts – SciencePost

Across the Channel, health professionals are worried about the resurgence of a sexually transmitted infection. Caused by bacteria, this infection usually found in developing countries generates open and oozing tissue wounds.

The recent upsurge of a bacterium

Donovanosis (or inguinal granuloma) is a bacterial disease that falls under the category of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). At its origin, we find the bacteria Klebsiella granulomatis. The infection has reached endemic proportions in several developing countries, but as explained The Sun, it is also currently experiencing an upsurge in the United Kingdom.

According to the British daily, doctors detected nineteen cases of donovanosis in 2016, then thirty in 2019. These figures have certainly fallen during the health crisis linked to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. However, cases have multiplied again with the end of confinements, according to the UK Department of Health executive agency Public Health England.

A potentially fatal outcome

The disease is characterized by small, painless nodules in the penis, vulva, lips or anus. However, these nodules, which can be confused with those caused by syphilis, appear between ten and forty days after contamination. At the end of their development, they burst and generate open, oozing tissue wounds. It is therefore a question of destruction of internal (and external) tissues with discharge of mucus and blood. This last characteristic is at the origin of the nickname of this so-called “flesh-eating” infection.

If left untreated, the infection continues and can cause lesions at the level of the wall of the vagina, even the cervix. In more extreme cases, certain diseases such as HIV can benefit from the appearance of such lesions. They can also lead to superinfection by pathogenic microbes. The disease itself can cause the death of the patient, still in the absence of treatment. Let us also mention the case of an Indian patient with HIV-2, whose development of STIs necessitated the amputation of part of the penis in 2008.

Known since 1882, donovanosis was until a few years ago considered to be an STI occurring only in some developing countries like India, Brazil or New Guinea. British obstetrician and gynecologist Shree Datta, however, says donovanosis is increasingly common in the UK. The specialist also recalls that the use of condoms reduces the risk of contracting the disease and that there is a effective antibiotic treatment.