Article Text
Abstract
Objective British guidelines advise treatment of Mycoplasma genitalium (Mgen) infection using the results of macrolide resistance-associated mutation (MRAM) assays. Limited data informs management when patients fail MRAM-guided treatment. This study evaluates current management strategies employed for cases of Mgen infection with MRAM-guided treatment failure.
Design This retrospective analysis reviewed laboratory and clinical data pertaining to all positive Mgen results between 28 May 2020 and 05 November 2022 across three London sexual health clinics. Treatment failure was defined as microbiological or clinical failure, despite appropriate MRAM-guided treatment with full compliance and no re-infection risk. Where MRAM status was unable to be determined, samples were excluded.
Results 340 samples were included from mostly male (74.4%) patients with a mean age of 30 years. The majority of tests were sent for urethritis (63.8%), and most infections were present without concurrent STIs (83.5%). 183 (53.8%) samples were MRAM positive; 157 (46.1%) were wild type. 152/183 (83.1%) received MRAM-guided treatment. 49/152 (32.2%) cases of MRAM-guided treatment failure were identified. 32/49 (65.3%) achieved either microbiological or clinical cure through a variety of treatment regimens. 66.6% of nine patients who received pristinamycin achieved microbiological cure; two patients were cured by minocycline. Many patients received multiple courses of moxifloxacin despite previous failures.
Conclusion Whilst high compliance with recommended MRAM-guided therapy was identified, there were also high rates of quinolone therapy failure (32.2%). Barriers to appropriate treatment include a lack of quinolone resistance assays and the non-availability of sitafloxacin in Europe, along with the limited availability of pristinamycin and minocycline in the UK during the study dates. We recommend developing a standardised management pathway for treatment resistant cases.
- TREATMENT
- Mycoplasma genitalium
- MYCOPLASMA
- Drug Resistance, Bacterial
Data availability statement
Data are available upon reasonable request. Anonymised data are available from the authors upon reasonable request.
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Data availability statement
Data are available upon reasonable request. Anonymised data are available from the authors upon reasonable request.
Footnotes
Handling editor Anna Maria Geretti
X @mikeyrayment
Contributors KJ–data extraction, data handling, analysis, manuscript drafting; EB, JG and MD–data extraction, data handling; GM–data extraction, data handling, analysis; RJ, NG and GJ–data handling and supervision; MR–study design, data handling and supervision, conceptualisation of analysis, final approval of manuscript. All authors have reviewed and approved the manuscript. MR acts as the guarantor. There are no non-author contributors.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.