Genital Infections
Genital infections may occur as a result of infection by a number of agents: viruses such as the herpes simplex viruses (which produce painful superficial ulceration on either the glans or the penile shaft) or those of the human papilloma family (causing penile warts, and possibly responsible for some cases of Cancer of the cervix in women, and the penis in men) and, of course, HIV; bacteria such as the gonococcus (causing gonorrhoea, usually with a penile discharge full of pus) or the spirochaete, Treponema palidum (causing syphilis, producing a painless penile ulcer in the early stages before going on, if untreated, to cause secondary syphilis affecting the whole body. Yeasts such as Candida albicans (causing penile thrush with itchy white patches on the glans or under the foreskin, more common in patients with diabetes mellitus); intermediate agents such as chlamydia (causing non-specific urethritis with pain on urination and penile discharge), and mites such as pubic lice (which infest the pubic hair and can cause intense itching). All these conditions are treatable, with the treatment depending upon the agents causing infection. They're all preventable, of course, by the practice of safe sex.
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