Fifty eight (16%) of the 362 patients, who reported to Dermatology and STD Department with symptoms pertaining to their genitourinary system were below 14 years of age. Fifty four (93.1%) of these children belonged to families of lower socio-economic strata. All the children were slum dwellers and none of them had studied beyond the third class. Syphilis was seen in 27.6%, gonorrhea in 24.1%, c...

Many of the landmark discoveries with regard to the etiology, 2. Gram staining for gonorrhea, non-gonococcal urethritis, pathogenesis and epidemiology of sexually transmitted chancroid, bacterial vaginosis infections (STIs) occurred with the use of various diagnostic 3. Tzanck smear for herpes genitalis, donovanosis, techniques many years ago.[1] However, the concept of molluscum contagiosum pr...

Haemophilus ducreyi 35000HP contains two genes, lspA1 and lspA2, whose predicted protein products have molecular weights of 456,000 and 543,000, respectively (C. K. Ward, S. R. Lumbley, J. L. Latimer, L. D. Cope, and E. J. Hansen, J. Bacteriol. 180:6013-6022, 1998). We have constructed three H. ducreyi 35000HP mutants containing antibiotic resistance cartridges in one or both of the lspA1 and l...

OBJECTIVES To determine the aetiology of genital ulcer disease (GUD) and its association with HIV infection in the mining community of Carletonville, South Africa, from two cross sectional surveys of consecutive men presenting with genital lesions during October 1993 to January 1994 and July to November 1998. METHODS A multiplex polymerase chain reaction (M-PCR) assay combined with amplicon d...

Haemophilus ducreyi is the etiologic agent of chancroid, a sexually transmitted genital ulcer disease. Keratinocytes are likely the first cell type encountered by H. ducreyi upon infection of human skin; thus, the interaction between H. ducreyi and keratinocytes is probably important for the ability of H. ducreyi to establish infection. We have used the HaCaT keratinocyte cell line grown in mon...

The technique of random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) was adapted and optimized to study Haemophilus ducreyi isolates. A panel of 43 strains isolated from chancroid patients from different countries in Africa, Europe, North America, and Asia were characterized. The strains were also studied with respect to lipooligosaccharide (LOS) migration and immunoblotting patterns and the presence of cy...