Of 23 unique Escherichia coli strains from 10 men with febrile urinary tract infections (UTIs) and their female sex partners, 6 strains (all UTI causing) were shared between partners.
Molecularly, the 6 shared strains appeared more virulent than the 17 nonshared strains, being associated with phylogenetic group B2, sequence types ST73 and ST127, and multiple specific virulence genes. This indicates that UTIs are sometimes sexually transmitted.
Written by:
Ulleryd P, Sandberg T, Scheutz F, Clabots C, Johnston BD, Thuras P, Johnson JR. Are you the author?
Department of Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Region Västra Götaland, Sweden; Department of Infectious Diseases, Institute of Biomedicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden; Department of Infectious Diseases, Institute of Biomedicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden; WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Escherichia and Klebsiella, Statens Serum Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark; Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
Reference: J Clin Microbiol. 2015 Jun;53(6):1947-50.
doi: 10.1128/JCM.00579-15
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 25832302