With gonorrhea, and all STDs, the two basic methods of reducing the risk of infection is to treat immediately with the recommended antibiotics to minimize its spread, or stick to a long-term, monogamous relationship with a clean partner and use latex condoms.
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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea is the second most commonly reported notifiable disease in the United States – over 350,000 cases were reported in 2014. The body says that “the future of current treatment options may be in jeopardy”. “We are running just one step ahead in order to preserve the remaining treatment option for as long as possible”.
“It is unclear how long the combination therapy of azithromycin and ceftriaxone will be effective if the increases in resistance persist”, said Gail Bolan, M.D, director of CDC’s Division of STD Prevention.
Experts at Public Health England (PHE) warned it was a clear case of “treatment failure” and a further sign the infection was getting harder to treat.
However, agency researchers report that the number of US cases of gonorrhea where strains showed “decreased susceptibility” to a key antibiotic, azithromycin, jumped from 0.6 percent in 2013 to 2.5 percent a year later.
The data unveiled that from 2013 to 2014, the CDC has percentage of bacteria fighting against azithromycin by over 400%.
Of the 5,093 N. gonorrhea samples collected in 2014, 25.3% were resistant to tetracycline, 19.2% to ciprofloxacin, 16.2% to penicillin and 2.5% to azithromycin.
The jump in resistance to azithromycin – from 0.6% in 2013 – is particularly worrisome as it is now the only recommended treatment for gonorrhea, in combination with ceftriaxone.
Having beaten each antibiotic used against it over the last several decades, gonorrhea is now showing resistance to the primary drug currently used against it, according to a new report. The CDC noted that more than 800,000 cases of gonorrhea are estimated to occur in the United States each year.
Gonorrhea infections sometimes occur with no symptoms, which means that diagnosis can be hard.
Typical symptoms of gonorrhoea include a thick green or yellow discharge from the vagina or penis, pain when urinating and (in women) bleeding between periods. In case of females, it can lead to the emergence of pelvic inflammatory disease, which in turn can cause infertility.
The full findings of the study were published in the journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reporton July 15.
Dr. Jonathan Mermin, Director of CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, said that the CDC has been keeping a tab on the threat of antibiotic resistant since 1986.
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Additionally, the CDC reports the increase wasn’t contained to just on population group, and the data shows the troubling fact that gonorrhea can rapidly develop resistance across the country, which has serious implications for treatment of this infection and control of our gonorrhea epidemic.
