Epidemiology and prevalence of Mycoplasma genitalium and resistance to azithromycin in the Northern Health Care Area of Tenerife, Canary Islands.

Resumen

Information about Mycoplasma genitalium (M. genitalium) is under-diagnosed as it is not a notifiable infectious disease (NID) and requires for its detection molecular biology techniques, which are not always available. Our objective was to study the epidemiology and prevalence of M. genitalium and the rate of resistance to azithromycin in our Health Care Area.

We conducted a retrospective study from April 2019 to July 2020 in the Northern Health Care Area of Tenerife, which is attended to the Universitary Hospital Complex of the Canary

Islands. The RT-PCR AllplexTMSTI Essential Assay (Seegene, South Korea) to diagnose Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) was used. Samples in which M. genitalium was detected were stored at -80oC for subsequent diagnosis of resistance to azithromycin with the RT-PCR AllplexTM MG and AziR Assay (Seegene, South Korea).

Of a total of 111/3849 (2.8% prevalence) patients diagnosed with M. genitalium, 59 (53.1%) were male with a mean age of 30 (19-61) years and mainly from Primary Care; 55 (49.5%). Only 79 samples of the 111 patients could be tested to detect azithromycin resistance, of which 15 (18.3%) were resistant to azithromycin: 10 with A2059G, 4 with A2058G and 1 with both. Azithromycin resistance was more frequent in men 12 (15.8%) and detected mainly in urine samples 6 (60%).

This study highlights the prevalence of M. genitalium in our setting as well as the high rate of resistance to azithromycin, making it necessary to detect resistance to azithromycin in M. genitalium for its appropriate treatment in our Health Care Area.