543
SHORT COMMUNICATION
Prevalence of Mycoplasma genitalium Infection and Relationship with Symptoms Among Adults
Attending a Sexual Health Centre
Maeva LEFEBVRE 1,2 , Julie COUTHERUT 1 , Sophie GIBAUD 3 , Charlotte BIRON 1,2 , Marine CHALOPIN 1 , Claire BERNIER 1,4 and
François RAFFI 2
Centre for Prevention of Infectious and Transmissible Diseases, 2 Infectious Diseases Department, 3 Bacteriology Department, and 4 Dermatology
Department, Nantes University Hospital, FR-44093 cedex 1 Nantes, France. E-mail: lefebvremaeva@gmail.com
1
Accepted Nov 23, 2016; Epub ahead of print Nov 24, 2016
Mycoplasma genitalium is a sexually transmitted non-
Gram stainable bacterium. It is considered as an emerging
agent of sexually transmitted infection (STI), but its tes-
ting is generally not recommended in population-based
screening or symptom-based testing (1, 2). The lack of
susceptibility of M. genitalium to antibiotics is an in-
creasing concern, as illustrated for instance by the recent
update of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC), and European guidelines about non-gonococcal
urethritis (NGU) (1, 2).
In recent years, several M. genitalium prevalence
studies in diverse populations have been published, but
such studies are rare in France, and there are few large
cohorts on therapeutic strategies. In France, PCR for M.
genitalium is performed only by a few centres, in cases
of treatment failure for NGU.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence
and pathogenic role of M. genitalium, through a systema-
tic screening approach, in a male and female population
attending a sexual health centre.
cial duplex real-time PCR targeting MgPa gene/Mg219 gene of M.
genitalium and a 2-kb repeated sequence of T. vaginalis. Samples
were tested following the guidelines from the manu