YEAST INFECTIONS

Report #6902; 10/1/96

A study in the American Journal of Public Health shows that when yeast causes a rash on the genitals, it often is acquired through heterosexual contact.

Yeast is a normal inhabitant of the intestines of healthy men and women and the vagina in women. It is unusual for normal, healthy people to develop skin rashes from yeast, but people with immune defects, such as those caused by diabetes or HIV, often are plagued by yeast rashes. So, when normal healthy people develop rashes caused by yeast, doctors should look for a cause. There are many different types of yeast. Most are harmless and do not cause skin rashes. Genital infections caused by yeast are often associated with a special type of yeast that is able to break though the skin to cause a red, itchy rash. This French study shows that men and women with genital rashes caused by yeast usually have several sexual partners and therefore, are at increased risk for picking up this special yeast through sexual contact. Since yeast is a normal inhabitant in the vagina, it is often diagnosed as the cause of vaginal itching when it is only an innocent bystander. When a physician takes cultures for many different types of infections and finds only a yeast, he usually prescribes suppositories to kill yeast and the patient feels better for a week or so because the suppository lubricates the irritated area. Then the itching returns. These women often are infected with mycoplasma/ which is extraordinarily difficult to find on culture/ and can be cured when they and their partners take azithromycin (250 mg once a day for 9 days)to kill the mycoplasma. If a woman really has a vaginal yeast infection, she will clear up with a single pill called diflucan that will kill the yeast through the bloodstream. By Gabe Mirkin, M.D., for CBS Radio News