Test for Mycoplasma genitalium or risk it becoming a superbug, doctors warn

Sexual health experts have warned that the sexually transmitted infection Mycoplasma genitalium could become a “superbug”—resistant to first and second line antibiotics—if new guidelines are not fully implemented.

Draft guidelines from the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) recommend diagnostic testing for M genitalium which, if left untreated in women, can cause pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility.1 The infection is often misdiagnosed as chlamydia and treated as such, which encourages antimicrobial resistance.

However, a survey of 125 public health commissioners carried out for the organisation found that only one in 10 were making provisions for M genitalium testing in their 2019 budget. …