Health officials in the United States (U.S.) have
raised the alarm, warning that gonorrhea was
rapidly becoming untreatable. The case was
reported in the ‘New England Journal of
Medicine’. According to the officials from the
U.S. Centres for Disease Control (CDC) and
Prevention, antibiotic- resistant cases of the
sexually-transmitted disease (STIs) including
gonorrhea rocketed more than 400 per cent
between 2013 and 2014.

For now, the CDC said solution to the threat of
untreatable STIs was by using condoms.

Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted disease
(STD) that can infect both men and women. It
is a very common infection, especially among
young people ages 15 to 24 years. Without
treatment, it can lead to chronic health
problems.

If the bacteria gets in the blood stream, it can
cripple one’s joints or even infect the heart. A
report in the mailonline stated that medical
personnel were trying to combat the issue by
combining the only two drugs that kill
Neisseria gonorrhoeae bacteria, which is the
causative agent of gonorrhea. However, in an
analysis released on Thursday, the U.S.

Centres for Disease Control and Prevention,
said there was a strong possibility this
approach would soon become ineffective.
“The confluence of emerging drug resistance
and very limited alternative options for
treatment creates a perfect storm for future
gonorrhea treatment failure in the U.S.,” said
Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of the CDC’s
National Center for preventing HIV/AIDS,
hepatitis, STD, and tuberculosis (TB). “History
shows us that bacteria will find a way to
outlast the antibiotics we are using to treat it.

“We are running just one step ahead in order
to preserve the remaining treatment option for
as long as possible.”

The CDC did not offer an estimate of how long
it could take for gonorrhea to become
untreatable. There are only two antibiotics
remaining that can treat gonorrhoea-
Azithromycin and Ceftriaxone. The infection has
already become immune to penicillin,
tetracycline and fluoroquinolones.

Increasingly, gonorrhea is building up a
resistance to the individual drugs and in some
cases, even a combination of the two is
proving futile. Last month, British doctors
revealed they have spent weeks trying to treat
a man with gonorrhea in his throat using
combination therapy – to no avail.

According to the CDC, multidrug therapy still
works and American doctors have yet to report
a failed case. The concern, however, stems
from the dramatic spike in cases where
individual drugs were failing, the report on the
mailonline stated.

In 2013, 0.6 per cent of gonorrhea cases were
resistant to azithromycin. A year later, that
figure leapt up to 2.5 per cent. “If this
becomes more widespread, it could jeopardise
treatment of gonorrhea,’ report author, Dr.
Robert Kirkcaldy, an epidemiologist in the
CDC’s Division of STD Prevention, said.

newtelegraphonline.com/gonorrhea-soon-
untreatable-experts/

It's possible because the bacteria that causes gonorrhea is getting resistant to the antibiotics and can be resistant to the strongest antibiotics because of antibiotics or anti-bacterial misuse.

In summary, it's a problem of Super Bugs