Terrifying surge in holiday hotspots of sexual disease usually found in horses

A putrid skin disease that usually affects horses has been spotted in people at several European holiday hotspots. Dermatophilosis, also known as 'rain rot', is a bacterial infection found in farm animals such as sheep, cows and horses in warmer tropical parts of the planet. But now the gruesome condition, which causes itchy, pus-filled spots on the face and genitals, has been found occurring in gay men in France and Spain.

Disease prevention experts have found clusters of males showing symptoms at sexual health clinics in Lyon, France, and Barcelona, Spain. The Spanish city is one of the most popular destinations for Brits for a city break, with around 620,000 UK travellers heading to the Catalan capital every year. Around 160,000 head to Lyon for a holiday from the UK annually.

Doctors have so far identified 25 cases in Lyon and surrounding areas, as well as in Paris and Bordeaux. At least nine cases have been recorded in Barcelona and one case each has been found in Turkey and Italy.

None of the men affected had been in contact with farm animals, or travelled to tropical regions where the infection is rife. Animals affected are often kept in poor conditions where the combination of hot and humid weather helps spark the infection.

The Sun reports, Demetre Daskalakis, a former director of the division of HIV prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said there could be a link to sexual encounters occurring in saunas.

He said: "It's a good time for these saunas to make sure that they're doing a lot of cleaning, but I think it also speaks to men who are attending these venues.

"I think it's [about] making sure that they're doing all the stuff that they need for hygiene and making sure they shower after encounters, etc."

In a report published on Emerging Sexual Diseases, lead author Dr Vicente Descalzo, an internal medicine specialist working in the STI/HIV unit Drassanes-Hospital Vall d'Hebron in Barcelona, Spain, wrote: "... this cluster of genetically closely related cases of dermatophilosis within sexual networks suggests that this condition might be emerging as a sexually transmissible infection, although environmental transmission cannot be excluded.

"Because clinical manifestations can be nonspecific and laboratory identification is uncommon in STI clinics, cases could remain unrecognised.

"Cross-border surveillance could help determine whether similar cases are occurring elsewhere."