Gonorrhea Could Become Untreatable

STATES CHRONICLE – While many scientists are looking into ways of treating diseases like AIDS another disease is coming hard from behind and Gonorrhea could become untreatable.

Science is definitely going into the right direction when it comes to treating different diseases. Although we are not quite there yet, many steps forward have been made towards treating cancer, heart disease or AIDS which are three of the most life-threatening and spread diseases.

But recently scientists have discovered that another disease which poses a relatively high threat may slowly but surely become untreatable. The main reason is the fact that the disease is developing a resistance to antibiotics.

A chief medical officer from the U.K. warns that the phenomenon is happening quite fast and the main reason for antimicrobial resistance is prescription of unsuitable drugs. The professor sent an open letter to pharmacies and general practitioners warning them about the consequences prescribing the wrong drugs could have on patients.

This year in England, 16 cases of “super-gonorrhea” were confirmed. These particular cases were antibiotic-resistant. The drug gonorrhea is developing a resistance to it’s a combination of azithromycin with ceftriaxone. These cephalosporin antibiotics have always been used as the base treatment for gonorrhea, according to the CDC. However, if the disease no longer responds to this treatment, medical staff and pharmacies are in a great predicament as they are left with very few antibiotics to prescribe.

The phenomenon, although concerning, is not very unusual. Once a drug or a combination of drugs becomes more widely spread among patients, it also poses the risk to become less efficient.

However, this new developed resistance to azithromycin is the first that triggered an alert in the U.K. Although the number of cases is not necessarily concerning, future consequences are. Medical scientists are worried that the numbers will increase and they will have to find other drugs and other sources of treatment for the disease.

Gonorrhea is an STD which can be transmitted to any sexually active person and it usually infects the genitals, the throat or the rectum. Since the genitals are the ones usually affected, some of the symptoms could be green or yellow genitals’ discharge or pain while urinating. However, there are cases in which the person infected presents no symptoms but can spread the disease to others.

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