NAIROBI, KENYA: The debate that has been raging in Kenya about male circumcision and the spread of HIV which led to a campaign for voluntary male circumcision could be dimmed if results of the latest research on the existence of microbes in the penis are to be considered.
The new research has disturbing findings that even healthy men have organisms that reside deep within the urogenital tract which could be pathogenic. The area has always been considered as sterile and free from infection but the study findings revealed otherwise. The researchers now believe that there are more microorganisms in the penis than had been imagined before.
The discovery was made during a study at the University of Indiana in the US as the researchers studied sexually transmitted diseases. Evidence showed that there were pathogens which received metabolites that are responsible for promoting growth. These metabolites were from another source.
David Nelson, an associate professor of microbiology and immunology said: “There was a signature in the chlamydial genome that suggested this organism might be interacting with other microorganisms.”
Nelson states that it came as a shocker that such microbes existed where they were not expected to be.
“That’s what initially piqued our interest. And when we went in and started to look, we found that there were a lot more than we would have anticipated being there,” he said.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) states that there are more than 30 different sexually transmitted bacteria, viruses and parasites. Gonorrhoea, chlamydial infection, syphilis, trichomoniasis, chancroid, genital herpes, genital warts, HIV and hepatitis B infection are some of the most common conditions by these microorganisms.
Nelson however warned that the discovery should not cause consternation yet because people host different types of microbes; there seemed to be no specific set of microbes designed for a healthy urogenital tract.
He noted that microbes acted in different ways. There were some that made man more vulnerable to infection like chlamydia while others actually helped prevent infection.
“We just don’t know at this point,” stated Nelson.
Only two factors are believed to determine the number of microbes found on and in the penis; these factors are sex and circumcision.
In Kenya, reported rates of circumcision are over 80 percent, except in Nyanza province where circumcision rates are at 48 percent but have been increasing over the years since the inception of the voluntary male medical circumcision.
Men who are uncircumcised have more bacteria on their penises compared to those who are circumcised. Male circumcision reduces the risk of HIV infection during vaginal sex by 60 percent.
Dr John Ong'ech, Head of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Kenyatta National Hospital, says that the existence of microbes in the urogenital tract is not new but there is a certain threshold which if surpassed can turn pathogenic.
The researchers have however called for more studies on the subject before a conclusive health advice could be reached. They argue that since sex plays a very important role in the presence of microbes, men of all ages need to be studied in order to reach of definite conclusion on the subject.
Nelson said that getting the consent of people prior to initiation of sexual activity is quite challenging.
“The penis is understudied; there could be a very interesting story there, but we haven’t really done the proper research,” said Deborah Anderson, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and microbiology at the Boston University School of Medicine.
