A new study illustrates why this sexually transmitted disease is not a laughing stock. Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacterium that causes gonorrhea, is developing resistance to antibiotics that have managed to treat it for decades.
A group of sexually transmitted disease experts published an article in the scientific journal PLOS Medicine, which outlines the challenges of drug-resistant gonorrhea. They surveyed 77 countries that participated in the global gonore tracking program and found that over 90 percent reported some types of antibiotics that were resistant to gonorrhea.
That's bad news for patients. Because while gonorrhea has no untreated number of untreated HIV deaths - the annual deaths due to gonorrhea of about 2,300 - still cause untold misery. About 78 million adults contract the disease in 2012, according to the World Health Organization. Symptoms include painful urination, itching and discharge of pus from the penis, vagina or anus, or sore throat (throat infection).
An infected person can unwittingly pass it on because not everyone shows symptoms. For women - most never experience symptoms - complications may include infertility and chronic pelvic pain. If pregnant, women with gonorrhea may have premature delivery or spread the disease to their newborns, which can develop life-long complications from infection.
Epidemiological studies have shown that gonorrhea and chlamydial infections may also make HIV infection more susceptible. Researchers do not fully understand this relationship, but they believe the immune response to gonorrhea allows HIV to hijack the recruited T cells to fight gonorrhea. PMS Plus tends to weaken the integrity of the genital mucosal lining, an important physical barrier to infection.
"This is a real problem for people to take this issue seriously," said Manica Balasegaram, head of the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership, a joint initiative of WHO and Drugs for Disease Outbreak Initiatives. "This is not seen as a killer disease, but it is a huge public health threat."
Unsafe oral sex is one of the biggest reasons for antibiotic resistance in gonorrhea. Throat infection after oral sex is often mistaken for sore throats or other infections by doctors, who prescribe antibiotics. When gonorrhea in the patient's throat is exposed to these drugs, the bacteria develop resistance to it. A person with drug-resistant gonorrhea in the throat may spread it if performing oral sex in a partner.
Thomas Hiltke, a program officer at the National Allergy Institute for Infectious Diseases and Infectious Diseases, said, "This is at a critical stage.We are in our last antibiotic class."
Over the last decade, gonorrhea has gradually developed resistance to some antibiotics. In most countries, there is only one class of antibiotics, cephalosporins, which can treat all gonorrhea infections reliably. In other parts of the world, the situation is even worse. In Japan, Spain and France, for example, cephtriaxone-resistant gonore strains, considered the last line of defense against this disease, continue. Doctors have responded by prescribing high doses or combining antibiotics.
To keep existing drug weapons useless, GARDP has allocated $ 50 million for research and development over the next few years.
This new type of antibiotic, called Zoliflodacin, developed by a private company, Entasis, has been shown to be safe and effective in early clinical trials completed by the end of 2016. The clinical trials are coordinated and partially funded by GARDP and the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Larger clinical trials will begin in the US, South Africa and Thailand by the end of 2018. The goal is for public-private partnerships that enable private companies to market drugs in rich countries and public and non-profit health agencies to poor country. It may not be able to afford it.
One way to fight resistant gonorrhea is to develop quick and cheap lab tests that doctors can use to diagnose antibiotic resistance. If laboratory tests tell the doctor within hours or less what antibiotics can work on someone's gonorrhea, they can adjust the drug regimen, saving the most powerful antibiotics for the most resistant cases.
Jeffrey Klausner, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, is working on a DNA test that will provide the answer.
( Post & Picture Is Originally from : npr.org)
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