Be Careful People. Never heard of it in T&T but you never know.
The Independent
STI that causes flesh-eating ulcers found in UK for first time
The Independent Chelsea Ritschel, The Independent Wed, Aug 22 2:02 PM AST
A sexually transmitted disease which causes flesh-eating ulcers to erupt on the genitals has been diagnosed in the UK for the first time.
The rare STI donovanosis is typically only found in tropical countries and up until now, there had been no recorded breakouts in UK.
However, a Freedom of Information request from online pharmacy chemist-4-u.com found a woman, aged between 15 and 25, was diagnosed with the STI in Southport in the last 12 months.
Donovanosis, also called Granuloma inguinale, causes genital ulcers to grow and spread, eventually leading flesh in the groin area to begin to eat itself.
According to the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH), there are four types of donovanosis.
The first and most common type called ulcerogranulomatous results in fleshy red ulcers that bleed when touched.
One version, known as the hypertrophic or verrucous type, appears as an ulcer with a raised irregular edge.
The necrotic type of donovanosis, causes a foul-smelling ulcer which leads to tissue destruction.
The final type, a sclerotic infection is identified by scar tissue.
In addition to the genitals, donovanosis can also appear on the lips, gums, cheeks and in the throat and can also cause permanent scarring and irreversible genital swelling.
The condition is twice as likely to affect men, and can be passed through sex as well as contact with an open ulcer.
The painless STI is treatable with antibiotics, however, early stages typically go undiagnosed and any contact with the bacteria can cause symptoms to appear in one to 12 weeks.
Chemist 4 U pharmacist Shamir Patel told the Liverpool Echo: “This is a very rare and nasty condition and it could be one of the first times it has been recorded in the UK. Although antibiotics can treat donovanosis, early-stage cases might be going undiagnosed because it's so uncommon in the UK.
“Bacteria that cause the disease, known as klebsiella granulomatis, infect the skin around the genitals, groin or anal area and causes lesions and skin disintegration as the flesh effectively consumes itself.
“Donovanosis itself can be treated with antibiotics, time is of the essence,” he continued, as: “Any delay could cause the flesh around the genitals to literally rot away.”
The STI was previously contained to countries such as India, Guyana, Brazil and New Guinea, however, it has also been diagnosed in Australia and South Africa.
A spokesperson for Public Health England said: “Donovanosis primarily occurs in tropical countries or regions of the Americas, Southern Africa, and Oceania.
“It is very rarely diagnosed and reported in the UK.”
The existence of the STI in the UK was discovered after Chemist-4-u.com contacted hospital trusts nationwide to find out how many diagnosis of STIs there had been, the age of people diagnosed, what sex and what region of the country they live in as part of extensive research into “The Great British STI Taboo.”
The investigation also found there were 420,000 diagnoses of sexually transmitted infections made in England in 2017.
Aug 23, 2018, 08:41am What Is Donovanosis, A So-Called 'Flesh Eating' Sexually Transmitted Infection?
Flesh-eating and genitals are words that you don't want to go together.
Actually flesh-eating and many words are bad together, such as flesh-eating pancakes. But a so-called "flesh eating" sexually transmitted infection (STI) has been making the news rounds recently. Colin Ainscough reported for the Lancashire Post about a woman in Southport in the the United Kingdom who was diagnosed with donovanosis. Otherwise known as granuloma inguinale, donovanosis is a disease caused by Klebsiella granulomatis, a bacteria formerly known as Calymmatobacterium granulomatis. Currently, donovanosis is relatively rare in the U.S., with about 100 reported cases per year, and the U.K. but is more common in some parts of the world such as parts of India, Papua, New Guinea, the Caribbean, central Australia, and southern Africa, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
This disease is not the same as necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh eating disease which can be caused by bacteria like group A Streptococcus, staphylococcus, Vibrio vulnificus, or Clostridia or certain types of fungi. Cases of necrotizing faciitis can spread really rapidly, destroying your skin and soft tissue, leading to loss of body parts and frequently death within days. You could get necrotizing fasciitis on your genitals but getting donovanosis is different.
Instead, donovanosis can result in painless ulcers in your genital region that progressively spread and get worse. These lesions have lots of blood vessels in them and thus appear beefy red and bleed. While being a beefcake may be attractive, having beefy red lesions on your genitals is not and can lead to genital damage and scarring, which may be permanent. You can also develop soft, itchy red nodules called subcutaneous granulomas or pseudobuboes. The infection can spread to the rest of your pelvis or even the organs in your abdomen, your bones, or your mouth.
Fortunately, as the National Library of Medicine (NLM) details, you can use antibiotics such as azithromycin, doxycycline, ciprofloxacin, erythromycin, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole to treat donovanosis. The sooner the better to avoid permanent damage. Just thinking about the words permanent genital damage should be motivation to see your doctor as soon as possible. Treatment takes a while though. Often, you have to take antibiotics for at least 3 weeks, until the sores have completely healed. Of course, the concern these days with many bacteria is that some day a super-duper antibiotic-resistant strain may someday emerge, which would not be super.
Just because you have beefy red lesions and nodules on your genitals doesn't necessarily mean you have donovanosis. You could have other diseases that you don't want to have such as chancroid, lymphogranuloma venereum, anogenital cutaneous amebiasis, or cancer. Thus, if you have such symptoms, don't just try to treat yourself with antibiotics and frequently change your underwear. See a real doctor. He or she can then get a sample of your lesions and perform some tests to determine whether it is donovanosis or something else. Your doctor will also want to test you for other STIs such as syphillis and HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) because STIs can be like gangs and travel in packs.
This brings us to how you can get donovanosis. Sex. Usually vaginal or anal but occasionally oral. Symptoms usually begin between 1 to 4 weeks after initial infection. However, sometimes it can take up to a year for symptoms to occur. The best way to prevent the infection besides not having sex with someone with beefy red ulcers is to use condoms. You can't necessarily tell if someone has donovanosis by just looking at him or her. And taking tissue samples and running lab tests with a doctor present during a date can be awkward.
So if you think you will be having sex, bring a condom, not just because of donovanosis but also since many other STIs have been on the rise as Jimmy Kimmel explains here:
As the NLM indicates, men seem to get donovanosis twice as often as women, and most cases occur in those 20 to 40 years old. But this is probably not because the bacteria checks your ID before infecting you. Anyone who comes into contact with Klebsiella granulomatis through sex can become infected.
Technically, sex is not the only way you can get donovanosis. According to the Australian government, there have been rare cases of people being infected through skin-to-skin nonsexual contact. But again this seems to be very rare, so don't freak out.
Again, donovanosis may be quite rare in your part of the world. So don't run around the streets panicking, flapping your arms, yelling "I don't want to get donovanosis, I don't want to get donovanosis." But you can add "flesh eating" STI to the long list of things that you don't want to get when you have sex and reasons why condoms should be worn during sex whenever possible.
