WHO Warns of Rising Drug-Resistant Gonorrhea

A new report from the World Health Association (WHO) warns of rising levels of drug-resistant gonorrhea. The data comes from reported cases of gonorrhea in 12 countries across five WHO regions.

Gonorrhea is one of the most common bacterial sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the world with an estimated 82 million cases across the globe each year. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate 1.6 million cases of gonorrhea each year.

Many people who get gonorrhea won’t have any symptoms. Those who do may experience discharge from the penis or vagina and a burning sensation when they pee. Gonorrhea can also cause swollen testicles. If left untreated, gonorrhea can cause further health issues including infertility in both men and women.

No Longer Always Easy to Treat

Gonorrhea is caused by the bacterium, Neisseria gonorrhoeae that continues to evolve to avoid antibiotics. This is referred to as developing antibiotic resistance. Over the last eighty years, gonorrhea has developed resistance to sulfanilamides, penicillins, tetracyclines, and fluoroquinolones. That leaves just one class of antibiotics-cephalosporins-as the only effective treatment we have left.

In the U.S. people with uncomplicated gonorrhea are given a single dose shot of ceftriaxone (which is a cephalosporin). Some are also given a dose of oral azithromycin. There have been cases in a number of countries in which this treatment alone was not enough. Those patients have all been cured of gonorrhea but have had to take a combination of antibiotics. The fear is that cases like these will begin to happen more often as gonorrhea becomes increasingly resistant to drugs we use to treat it.