Gonorrhea becomes incurable
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
Gonorrhea, which infects millions of people annually, is becoming more resistant to drugs and can soon turn into incurable, warns the World Health Organization.
Gonorrhea is caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhea, which is transmitted from person to person through sexual contact. Patients often have no symptoms, but the ailment can lead to serious complications, including infertility, chronic pelvic pain in women and epididymitis (inflammation of the epididymis) in men. If the bacteria enters the bloodstream or joints, you can die. Children born to women with gonorrhea are half the victims of eye infections leading to blindness.
Gonorrhea, once considered a disease of sailors and soldiers, was easily curable with the discovery of penicillin. Today, this is the second most common infection after chlamydia, sexually transmitted infection. WHO experts believe that gonorrhea is responsible for 106 million cases a year. Infection also increases the likelihood of other hurts, including HIV.
Already, gonorrhea has developed resistance to cephalosporins, and this is the only remaining class of antibiotics that doctors recommend for the eradication of STDs. In a couple of years the bacterium can become immune to all the medicines available today, that is, it will turn into a super bacterium.
For the first time, the resistance of gonorrhea to cephalosporins became known in Japan, and recently doctors with the same problem faced in the UK, Australia, France, Sweden and Norway. Since these countries have a very well developed health care system, there is almost no doubt that cephalosporin-resistant strains of gonorrhea circulate unrecognized in other states.
[