Q: I am a 26 years old married man. My wife and I had no problem during the early days of our marriage but after three months she complained of burning and itching during intercourse. She was found infected by vaginal yeast infection. After 15 days of treatment she got cured. Suddenly one day after intercourse, I felt some burning and itching on my penis and the next day I found some blisters on the edge of my penis. The doctor said it was due to infection and prescribed Cynomycin 500 mg, and Bactroban cream to apply. It took two and a half week to get cured. After a gap of 6 months I again got the same infection. I have read about herpes type 1, type 2 and penile yeast infection, and it's my assumption that I have penile yeast infection. How can I get rid of this recurrent infection? Please suggest.

A:First of all it is important to establish the correct diagnosis. Different diseases follow different courses and have different outcomes. Some like herpes genitalis are life long infections. Others like candidal infections will get cured but one can get re-infected again. It is very likely that both you and your spouse are infected by candida. Both of you should be treated simultaneously. On the contrary, if one person is treated, then the second person will pass back the infection when both of them meet. Now if the second person is treated while the first one is not, then the latter will pass on the infection to the former. This way both will continue to suffer. There is another scenario: recurrences can occur in an individual if there are some predisposing factors like diabetes, therapy with antibiotics, immunospuressive, etc. Therefore relevant investigations, proper treatment and follow up should clarify.