[ ARC forum 2 ]
Written by Paul B. at 29 Mar 2002 12:34:37: Streph!
As an answer to: Re: Foreskin and diabetes written by Rood at 25 Mar 2002 15:51:24:
> My question is: Could the circ and the problems that led to it have been prevented? If so, how?
You now enter an area of extremes, and accordingly the answer is "perhaps".
> a jail inmate with a history of past infections developed a bacterial infection that caused open ulceration
...
> streph infection highly resistant to antibiotics.Whose mistype? It is either "Strep", which is rarely significantly resistant to antibiotics, or "Staph" which commonly is. The latter is though a rather uncommon cause of major problems in this region, and denotes a substantial problem with hygiene or an immune deficiency - such as AIDS - which is arguably more common in that population than elsewhere.
> The individual was given a choice: treatment with an effective antibiotic that had "bad" side effects, or circumcision.
Peculiar alternatives. One would not choose to perform a circumcision with active infection present. If it were performed, the antibiotic would certainly need to be given as well.
> The inmate chose circumcision. Since then the ulceration has healed, although a visible scar remains.
If the ulcer healed in consequence to circumcision, of course it would have responded in the same manner to being held retracted by taping. It is arguable that if the circumcision itself healed, then the ulcer would have done so anyway.
> Because of a range of problems, the inmate evidently had a weakened immune system,
Not HIC/ AIDS perchance? Oops! What a curiously elegant typo! I meant "HIV"! (;-)
> poor circulation
Poor circulation in the penis implies complete impotence. In which case he probably won't miss his foreskin, sad to say!
> and urine high in sugar and nitrites which resulted in an active petrie dish that would rival that in most labs.
Cause and effect muddled here.
> Nitrites, he added, are a normal part of urine
No way! Unless he had been scoffing the compound they use to make the meat look red in the butcher's window (which is definitely very bad for you), nitrites are very abnormal in urine, quite positively indicating a urine infection. Now that may well be more likely and difficult to treat in the presence of sugar from diabetes.
> ...with nitrites, read protein, as nitrogen is in protein.
But not directly related. Protein indicates (amongst other and worse possibilities,) a urine infection with inflammation and leakage of protein from the lining of the bladder and such. Nitrites also indicate infection, but not because of the protein, rather they are derived from bacterial breakdown of urea, one of the major solutes in (normal) urine (and itself the leftovers from breakdown of protein in the body).
> Then add an antibacterial resistant strain of streph and there you have it.
If this was in his bladder, then he had a problem well beyond fixing by circumcision.
Quite frankly, to the extent that this description is accurate, it suggests this guy really is on the way out. The clear implication is that he's not going to be enjoying sex very much longer anyway, even if he is at present, which sounds most unlikely.
Otherwise, it is a typically muddled and distorted third-hand account of some events, perhaps a comedy of errors, perhaps not.