Gut Infections

A large number of bacteria are responsible for gut infections, leading to diarrhoea or stomach pains. Examples are shigellosis (caused by shigella) and salmonellosis (caused by salmonella). Some gut infections are caused by parasites, such as thread worm, amoebiasis (caused by amoebas) and giardiasis (caused by giardia).

What do they look like?

Symptoms can include:

• diarrhoea
• stomach cramps
• farting
• fever
• blood in the diarrhoea
• losing weight.

With thread worms, you might:

• feel itching around and inside your arse
• see the worms in your shit, looking like short threads of white cotton.

How are they passed on?

Besides food-poisoning, they’re also passed on by getting tiny amounts of shit on your fingers and in your mouth. This can happen during:

• rimming
• fucking
• fingering and fisting
• scat
• handling used dildoes or condoms.

Thread worms are caused when the invisible worm eggs get on your fingers and then into your mouth. They are spread the same way as gut infections.

How are they prevented?

• By avoiding contact with small amounts of shit during sex. You can use latex gloves for fisting and fingering or a latex barrier (e.g. a condom cut into a square) for rimming.
• By washing your hands after handling used condoms or after sex involving arse play.
• You may decide to cut down on rimming or not to rim at all.

How are they treated?

If you think you’ve got a gut infection from rimming, only if you say you’ve been rimming will your doctor know which tests to carry out. Not telling the doctor this means they’ll not test for the right things, leaving the infection to possibly cause you serious damage.

• A sample of your shit will be tested.
• Anti-diarrhoea treatments may make some gut infections worse -  antibiotics will have to be used for some infections. Partners should be checked or treated to stop you being re-infected.
• Gut infections can cause serious problems if HIV has weakened your immune system. Sometimes the infections can be very difficult to get rid of.
• Thread worms are treated by taking tablets or powders sold in chemists costing a few pounds (no prescription needed).