Mode of Transmission

§Ureaplasma urealyticum can be transmitted in various ways, including directly by sexual transmission through direct contact between couples, vertically from mother to offspring, or through hospital-acquired infections from transplanted tissues. Until a female is specifically tested for an infection, this microorganism can live as normal flora in her reproductive tract and remain undetected. Thus, the symptoms for this bacterium can vary from person to person. Some of the most common symptoms for women associated with this bacterium include infertility, recurrent pregnancy loss, pelvic pain, premenstrual symptoms like spotting between menstrual cycles, and vaginal symptoms like uterine infection.§ Other general symptoms associated with this bacterium include a chronic sore throat, gall stones, kidney stones, red itchy eyes, chronic fatigue, blindness and pain upon looking at light, headaches and frequent passing out, lack of mind coordination, arthritis, asthma, heart attacks, strokes, cerebral palsy, high blood pressure, nasal polyps, stuffy nose in newborns, coughing, belly or muscle pain, burning in the stomach, bloody diarrhea, and anal itching and bleeding.

§The infections associated with Ureaplasma urealyticum can be contagious, and if an infected person coughs in one’s face or if one accidentally touches the infected person’s nasal or eye secretions, the recipient becomes infected. If one is treated for their infections when they have the local symptoms mentioned above, they can be easily cured. However, if undetected and untreated, the infection can spread to other parts of the body and potentially cause damage to the nervous system, muscular system, or the joints. The bacterial infections that are caused by Ureaplasma urealyticum can also lead to fertility problems such as tubal disease, recurrent miscarriages, decreased sperm motility, and poor post coital tests. Furthermore, Ureaplasma urealyticum has been attributed to many diseases in the lower urogenital tracts of humans.

•Other diseases that are caused by this microorganism include chorioamnionitis, an infection of the amniotic membrane and the amniotic fluid. Stillbirth can also be caused by U. urealyticum. It is also associated with non-gonococcal urethritis, an infection in the urethra that is not caused by gonorrhea.

•Additionally, this bacterium can attack the cerebrospinal fluid and cause pleocytosis, which is an increase in cell count. Ureaplasma urealyticum is also noted to often cause infectious arthritis in people who have hypogammaglobulinemia, a deficiency in immunoglobulin . Ureaplasma species differ from all other Mycoplasma by possessing urease activity  urease activity has been detected in a large variety of bacteria but the only organisms known to depend on urea for growth urea hydrolysis appears to play a major role in the energy metabolism of Ureaplasma by promoting ATP synthesis through a chemioosmotic mechanism . This rather unique energy – yielding mechanism is essential for the Ureaplasma, which are known to lack the major energy-yielding (glycolytic and arginine) pathway established so far for other mollicutes. The fact that specific urease inhibit the growth of Ureaplasma, supports the key role of urease in Ureaplasma growth.

•U. urealyticum infection led to a significant decrease in the percentage of morphologically normal sperm in infertile males. There was a clear correlation between U. urealyticum infection, raised seminal leucocytes and abnormal sperm morphology.