Public health officials stated that they had discovered two cases of gonorrhoea that show reduced susceptibility to several antibiotics that can be used to treat them. Its the first time gonorrhoea strains resistant to drugs have been found in the United States.

The pandemic accelerated the spread of sexually transmitted illnesses worldwide due to increased sexual activity and a decline in routine health examinations.

Infections, such as gonorrhea, are growing more and more resistant to the antibiotics that can be used to treat them, posing a grave threat to public health. Gonorrhoea is caused by the bacteria Niesseria gonorrhoeae which is sexually transmitted and one of the most common infections being diagnosed in the US. It infects the mucous membranes in the genitalia, rectum, throat, and eyes.

Infected people may sometimes be asymptomatic. If the infection is not treated, it may result in pelvic pain, infertility in women, and blindness in babies.

Approximately 700,000 individuals per year die worldwide from infections resistant to antibiotics. If actions arent taken to halt the spread of resistant microbes, that figure is predicted to increase to 10 million annually by 2050. The fact that this specific strain has been spreading globally raises some concern.

Experts stated that the findings serve as a reminder that gonorrhoea is getting more and more resistant to treatment. Since there have been no new drugs to treat gonorrhoea in years, there is urgently a need of new therapeutic approach.

(Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/19/health/first-us-multidrug-resistant-gonorrhea)