They're supposed to be used to combat bacteria, not viruses," Stuart Levy, director of Tufts Medical Center's Center for Adaptation Genetics and Drug Resistance, told National Geographic in 2014. "We're continuing to use antibiotics in a bad way.
#SUPER STRAIN GONORRHEA SYMPTONS HOW TO#
(Related: " Teaching People How to Stay Healthy Has Come a Long Way") Of the two million people in the United States who are infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria each year, 23,000 of them die as a result. There are concerns that gonorrhea is developing into a superbug that can't be treated with antibiotics. (Related: " Superbugs, Meet Your Worst Nightmare: This Pepper Tree") Fast Clap Of the three most common STIs-the others being chlamydia and syphilis-gonorrhea is the most antibiotic resistant. Cheaper, older antibiotics that have been misused and overused are now failing. Although many patients go undiagnosed because they may not have obvious symptoms, the disease is becoming more difficult to treat. The CDC estimates that about 820,000 people in the United States contract gonorrhea each year, and more than half of these cases are reported. Once a patient has cured their infection, it's possible to become reinfected. If left untreated, gonorrhea can lead to infertility or pelvic inflammatory disease.
Most people who contract gonorrhea are asymptomatic, but those who exhibit symptoms experience painful urination, abnormal discharge from sexual organs, or pain around these areas. During childbirth, it can also be transferred from mothers to babies, where it most commonly effects the eyes. Gonorrhea, a venereal disease caused by Neisseria gonorrhoeae bacteria, is an infection that can be spread by sexual contact. Photograph by Karen Kasmauski Undiagnosed Cases He learned to use clean needles in a Doctors Without Borders risk-reduction program aimed at lowering the numbers of people passing disease through dirty needles. Vitaly Melnikov, a 29-year-old Russian heroin addict, shoots up in a Moscow apartment. (Related: " Scary New Superbug Is Popping Up in More Places") At the same time in 2016 when the United Nations declared antibiotic resistance "the greatest and most urgent global risk," the CDC announced gonorrhea was going down an untreatable path. "We are following up this case to ensure that the infection was effectively treated with other options and the risk of any onward transmission is minimized."Īlthough this may be the first time a case of gonorrhea has been reported "incurable," the disease has steadily become more drug-resistant over the years.
"This is the first time a case has displayed such high-level resistance to both of these drugs and to most other commonly used antibiotics," Gwenda Hughes, head of Public Health England's STI section, tells media. Health officials are tracing back the man's past partners to see if any of them has been infected, but no other cases have currently been discovered. The man has one regular female partner in the U.K., and she has tested negative for the superbug. Ertapenem appears to be effective now, and the man will be tested again in April to see if it's still working. They've turned to a different drug called ertapenem, which has also been used to prevent infections after colon and rectal surgery. Health officials have tried targeting the man's disease with the antibiotics azithromycin and ceftriaxone, but with no success.
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