Oh Clap! CDC Warns Gonorrhea Could Become Resistant to Antibiotics
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea could one day become untreatable, and that the public should be concerned.
Gonorrhea has a long history of developing antibiotic resistance.
In the 1940s, it happened with antibiotic sulfa-drugs.
By the 1980s, the STD also developed resistance to penicillin and tetracycline.
As recent as 2007, fluoroquinolones lost effectiveness.
Now, doctors have just one recommended treatment left. But CDC epidemiologist Dr. Robert Kirkcaldy says gonorrhea is starting to show resistance to it.
“And why that’s particularly concerning is that there aren’t really any new drugs that are readily available for the treatment of gonorrhea,” Kirkcaldy says.
No treatment failures have been recorded in the US. Yet.
The CDC is calling on pharmaceutical companies and researchers to step up drug development efforts before gonorrhea becomes untreatable.
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