Epidemiology, Prevalence and Antimicrobial Susceptibility of Sexually Transmitted Mycoplasma hominis and Ureaplasma urealyticum Infections in Dschang, West Cameroon

Background: Genital Mycoplasmas play a key etiological role in several urogenital diseases among both Men and Women. Just to mention the few, they are often responsible of non-gonococcal urethritis, spontaneous abortion, preterm birth, low birth weight, infertility and perinatal mortality.

Aim: The study aimed to assess the prevalence of genital infections with Mycoplasma hominis, Ureaplasma urealyticum and their co-infection, as well as the susceptibility profiles to antibiotics commonly prescribed in Dschang, Cameroon.

Study Design: This was a 5-years retrospective cross-sectional study (including data from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2019) conducted at Saint Vincent de Paul Hospital in Dschang, Cameroon.

Methods: Data of 338 participants received at the Gyneco-obstetric and Internal Medicine units, properly recorded, were collected from the Hospital Microbiology Laboratory records.

Results: The overall prevalence to genital Mycoplasmas was 57.4%, with 44.4% attributed to Ureaplasma urealyticum, 5.9% to Mycoplasma hominis and 7.1% to the Co-infection with the two bacteria isolates. Josamycin was the most sensitive antibiotic against Ureaplasma urealyticum (85.3%) and the co-infection (91.7%). Mycoplasma hominis isolates were more susceptible to three fluoroquinolones and tetracyclines with an equal sensitivity rate of 80.0%. Emphasis is on the increasing resistance of co-infection towards Macrolides (83.3%). Summarily, Josamycin was the antibiotic to which genital Mycoplasmas showed the lowest resistance rate (6.2%) while the highest (62.9%) was attributed to Acetylspyramycin.

Conclusion: The implementation of health policies in Cameroon should optimize on mechanisms of diagnosis, proper treatment and monitoring the antibiotic resistance of commonly isolated genital Mycoplasmas, regarding their impact on reproductive health.