World Health Organization warns of imminent spread of untreatable superbug gonorrhoea

An employee of Aquastream company looks at marine worms through a microscope
Image There is no affordable rapid diagnostic test for gonorrhoea infection
Author

07 July, 2017

At least three people worldwide are infected with totally untreatable "superbug" strains of gonorrhoea which they are likely to be spreading to others through sex, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said today.

This development, World Health Organization has warned that it is now much harder to treat gonorrhoea if contracted, and in some cases impossible.

The gonorrhea bacteria over the years have beefed up and have developed a resistance to all therapeutic antibiotics. Ultimately, vaccines will be needed to stop the sexually transmitted disease, the World Health Organization believes.

Each year, an estimated 78 million people are infected with gonorrhoea*.

The WHO said that even in countries like France, Japan and Spain, they came across patients who could not be treated. But resistance to cefixime - and more rarely to ceftriaxone - has now been reported in more than 50 countries.

Wi is also concerned that the resistance data, which comes from high-income countries, just represents the tip of the iceberg of cases that go undocumented in low-income countries.

The infection may affect throat, rectum and genitals.

She said: "When you use antibiotics to treat infections like a normal sore throat, this mixes with the Neisseria species in your throat and this results in resistance". Oral sex is allowing gonorrhoea to spread to the throat.

"In the U.S., resistance (to antibiotics) came from men having sex with men because of pharyngeal infection", added Dr Wi.

A decline in condom use, which had soared because of fears of HIV/Aids, is thought to help the infection spread.

It is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the Neisseria gonorrhoeae bacteria.

Oral sex and a decline in condom use has been blamed for helping the disease to spread.

The symptoms of gonorrhoea include pain or burning when peeing, unusual discharge and in some women, bleeding between periods.

Untreated infection can lead to infertility, pelvic inflammatory disease and can be passed on to a child during pregnancy.

The WHO Global Gonococcal Antimicrobial Surveillance Programme (WHO GASP), monitors trends in drug-resistant gonorrhoea.

Director of the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership Manica Balasegaram said the situation was "grim" and called for more research into new drugs.

"We are now at a point where we are using the drugs of last resort, but there are worrying signs as treatment failure due to resistant strains has been documented", said Prof.

Ultimately, Wi said, a vaccine is needed because gonorrhea will become resistant despite the efforts to stay a step ahead.

Data from 77 countries show that antibiotic resistance is making gonorrhoea - a common sexually-transmitted infection - much harder, and sometimes impossible, to treat.


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