The Effectiveness of Condoms to Protect Against Bacterial InfectionsErica Salzano

Department of Biology, York College

Introduction

• Providencia stuartii, a member of the Enterobacteraceae family, is a common cause of urinary tract infections, both nosocomial and community-acquired (Poirel 2008).

• Condoms provide a dual purpose to prevent pregnancies and protect against infection.

• The ability of condoms to protect against P. stuartii induced UTI’s have not been previously studied.

• Some condoms contain spermicide to help reduce risk of unwanted pregnancies. The detergent based lubricant that many condoms contain to further enhance pregnancy prevention also have anti-microbial effects (Zairi 2009).

• For individuals that have a latex allergy, there are non-latex options like lambskin condoms.

• There are no major studies on the microbial carriage rate in the spermicide or lubricant used for condoms.

Materials and Methods

Figure 1: Providencia stuartti transmission through condoms after incubating at room temperature. Based off a one-way ANOVA statistical test, there is no significant difference between the condom types [F(2,3)=2.386, P=0.2398]. Error bars indicate a 95% confidence interval. Samples at are not shown due to full transmittance through the condom.

Discussion

• Condoms are not one hundred percent effective in preventing bacterial infections due to tearing, extreme stretching, or slippage (Warner et al. 2008).

• After twenty-four hours incubating at body temperature, all of the sample condoms were stretched to a much larger size, which could have contributed to the higher bacterial transmittance.

Future Studies

• Identify the other prominent bacteria that appear to grow in lubricant.

• Further dilute the plated concentrations for the body temperature portion of the experiment, or less incubation time

Literature Cited

• Poirel, L., Bruderer, T., Frei, R., Bernabeu, S., Graber, P., and Nordmann, P. 2008. Multidrug-resistant Providencia stuartii expressing extended-spectrum b-lactamase PER-1, originating in Kosovo. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. 61: 1392-1393.

• Zairi, A., Tangy, F., Bouassida, K., and Hani, K. 2008. Dermaseptins and magainins: antimicrobial peptides from frogs’ skin- new sources for a promising spermicides microbicides. Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology 2009:1-8.

• Warner L. et al., 2008. Problems with condom use among patients attending sexually transmitted disease clinics: prevalence, predictors, and relation to incident gonorrhea and chlamydia. American Journal of Epidemiology 167:341-349.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Dr. Mathur and Dr. Hagerty for all of their assistance with this research. Also thanks to Corinne Cusick and Rob Harvey for their formatting advice, and to James Bergenti for his support and lab help.

Objectives

• Evaluate the efficacy of four types of condoms as barriers of transmission of Providencia stuartii.

1. Non-lubricated2. Lubricated3. Spermicidal4. Lambskin

Colony Variation Growth on Agar Plates

Conclusions

• The non-lubricated condoms yeilded the least amount of bacterial transmission through the condom barrier.

• There was greater transmission through the condom when the sample was incubated at .

• There were additional bacteria detected within the lubricant samples.

Colony Indentificati

on

Morphological

DescriptionMicroscopic Image

1Round, tan, dull, small colonies

2

Larger, irregular shape,

filamentous colonies

3Small, round, yellow, shiny

colonies

4

Small, bright yellow, circular, raised

colonies

Microbial Morphology

Colony Description

Streak Plates Gram Stains (photograph)

Calculate cell concentration:

Cells/mL =

Calculate the percent P. stuartii that passed through the condom:

Gram negative rods ~ 1 um

Gram negative rods ~ 2 um

Gram negative rods ~ 1um

Gram negative rods ~ 0.5-1 um

Condom TypeColony

IdentificationAverage Cell/mL

Non-Lubricant 1

Lubricant

1234

 

 

Spermicide N/A N/A 

Lambskin

1234

100 mL Nutrient broth (A)

50 mL P. stuartii culture (B)

Condom suspended in broth

Colonies Per Condom at Room Temperature

Table 2: The average cell per mL was calculated for each individualcolony type found outside corresponding condom type. Spermicidecondom calculations are not available due to full lawn growth.

Table 1: Four different types of bacteria growth was seen. Bacteria types were morphologically described, stained, and viewed under the microscope. Type 1 is Providencia stuartii. Types 2,3, and 4 are unknowns.

Results

• Methods Part I: Experimental Design - All conditions were done in duplicate

• Methods Part II

Quantitative Analysis

Incubate for 24 hours at either

room temperature or

Plate samples A and B for standard

plate count

Data Analysis