A new test could uncover the secret sexually transmitted disease 400,000 Australians may be carrying.
MG, or mycoplasma genitalium, is carried by up to two percent of Australians, according to researchers’ estimates cited by 9 News.
The disease causes chlamydia-like symptoms, such as infection of the cervix or urethra, and can be spread through sexual intercourse, even if the carrier doesn’t experience any symptoms.
MG, or mycoplasma genitalium, is carried by up to 400,000 Australians, according to researchers’ estimates
Scientists worry that a little-known sexually transmitted infection is becoming resistant to treatment however a new medical breakthrough hopes to fix that.
The test, developed by SpeeDx in collaboration with the Melbourne Royal Women’s Hospital will be able to diagnose MG and identify the most suitable treatment.
‘We are no longer guessing in the dark,’ Dr Alexandra Marceglia, Unit Head of the Sexual Health and Rapid Access Service at the hospital told 9 News.
‘We can treat patients immediately with the antibiotic we know will work.’
Priced at $28 the test works by taking a urine sample or swab from the genital area and screening it in a lab.
MG causes chlamydia-like symptoms, such as infection of the cervix or urethra, and can be spread via sexual intercourse
The infection is listed as ‘recently identified’ on the Australian STI Management Guidelines webpage despite being discovered in the early 1980s.
One sexual health expert called MG ‘extraordinarily unrecognised.’
‘Many doctors don’t really know about it, most doctors aren’t testing for it,’ Catriona Bradshaw, sexual health researcher at Monash University and senior clinician at the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Dr Bradshaw said MG is becoming resistant to antibiotics, but that more wide-spread testing could counteract this trend.
‘This resistance to frontline therapy has occurred over the last decade, has largely gone unnoticed because of the lack of availability of testing and the lack of surveillance,’ she said.
In January, the NSW-based company SpeeDx received approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration to market the country’s first commercial test for MG.