A 38-year-old man sought help from urologists after suffering redness, swelling and scabbing on his penis, which had persisted for the best part of a week.
Further investigations revealed that the troubling symptoms had begun soon after he’d suffered a bout of severe diarrhea and vomiting.
The doctors, at the American University of Beirut Medical Center in Lebanon, where he was treated, took a swab of the man’s penis to test for infection.
They found evidence of the bacteria bacillus cereus, which is usually found in rice that’s been left out at room temperature for too long and can cause sickness and stomach upsets if eaten.
The doctors concluded that the man’s unusual genital infection had been caused by an episode of diarrhea and vomiting that occured almost immediately after ‘vigorous sex’ with his wife.
The intimate act can increase the risk of bacteria permeating the skin due to the change in blood vessels.
The bacteria was said to have made direct contact with the patient’s groin.
The doctors remarked that it was ‘unusual’ to see bacillus cereus in the skin, let alone the genitals.
This was the ‘first case in literature’ of the food poisoning in the penis.
Reference:
Nasrallah, Oussama G. MDa; Mahdi, Jana H.d; Araj, George F. PhDb; El Sayegh, Noura MDb; El Zakhem, Aline MDc; Bachir, Bassel G. MDa (2024) “Bacillus cereus infection of the penis: an unusual infection”. Annals of Medicine & Surgery 86 (9), 5600-5603. Full text (warning, contains photos)
Not really, the doctors suggest that him being sick on his dick almost immediately after sex is why he got the infection:
The reason it’s the first time food poisoning of the penis has been recorded in the medical literature is because of the unfortunately close timing of the two events.
Can you imagine being in the throws of violently vomiting and shitting, and your wife is like “That’s hot. Let’s do it.”, and you’re like “I’m down”. What kind of lives are these people living?
The timeline seems to be: they had a meal with rice, followed by vigorous sex and then later he soiled his generals thanks to food poisoning.
Once your top and bottom ends erupt violently then you are lucky if you make it to the toilet in time. And all you are fit for is praying for a prompt death.
So basically if he had not had sex and comited on his dick he would have been fine
That is the… thrust of the argument, yes. They emphasise “vigorous sex” in the paper and that can lead to micro-tears and abrasions on the genitals which would greatly increase your chance of getting an infection afterwards. Skin bacteria (staph or strep) would be most likely (I have eczema and have had infections through the breaks in my skin, so I now have a prescription emollient that is antibacterial) but even if you soiled your genitals and got an infection it would usually be gut bacteria. He’s just been hit by a series of unlucky events.
I mean, I’ve heard similarly wild medical theories from their neighboring regions.
How serious should doctors from this hospital be taken?