Across the Channel, health professionals are concerned about the resurgence of a sexually transmitted infection. Caused by a bacterium, this infection usually found in developing countries generates open and oozing tissue wounds.
Donovanose (or granuloma inguinale) is a bacterial disease that falls into the category of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). At its origin, we find the bacterium Klebsiella granulomatis . The infection has reached endemic proportions in several developing countries, but as The Sun explains, it is also currently experiencing an upsurge in the UK.
According to the British daily, doctors detected nineteen cases of donovanosis in 2016, then thirty in 2019 . These figures certainly fell during the health crisis linked to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. However, cases have increased again with the end of the lockdowns, according to the UK Department of Health's executive agency Public Health England.
The disease is characterized by small painless nodules in the penis, vulva, labia or anus. However, these nodules, which can be confused with those caused by syphilis, appear between ten and forty days after contamination . At the end of their development, they burst and generate open and oozing tissue wounds. It is therefore a question of destruction of internal (and external) tissues with flow of mucus and blood . This last characteristic is the origin of the nickname of this so-called "flesh-eating" infection.
If left untreated, the infection continues and may cause injury at the level of the wall of the vagina, even the cervix. In more extreme cases, certain diseases such as HIV can benefit from the appearance of such lesions. They can also give rise to superinfection by pathogenic microbes. The disease itself can cause the death of the patient , always in the absence of treatment. Let us also mention the case of an Indian patient with HIV-2, whose development of STIs required the amputation of part of the penis in 2008.
Known since 1882, donovanosis was until a few years ago considered an STI found only in a few developing countries such as India, Brazil or New Guinea. British obstetrician and gynecologist Shree Datta, however, says donovanosis is increasingly common in the UK. The specialist also points out that the use of condoms reduces the risk of contracting the disease and that there is an effective antibiotic treatment .
