‘Untreatable’ STI increasingly common among urban patients, says sexual health expert
Professor Catriona Bradshaw says screening for M. genitalium in asymptomatic patients probably does more harm than good.
Antimicrobial resistance has created another “untreatable” STI, Mycoplasma genitalium, which is increasingly common in Australia, doctors say.
Melbourne sexual health physician Professor Catriona Bradshaw said Australia was a “hotspot” for fluoroquinolone- and macrolide-resistant M. genitalium probably because of high resistance in neighbouring countries.
Earlier this year, her research team found that the Western Pacific, including Australia, had the world’s highest prevalence of dual-class resistance, at 29%, compared with 7% globally.
As of 2021, fluoroquinolone resistance was 40% in the region compared with 13% globally, their Lancet preprint study also found.
