Monday, 20 February 2012

Scary Bacteria!

I would like to stop posting news items about antibiotic resistant gonorrhea. I really would. If I could stop posting about gonorrhea, then it would mean that it wasn't appearing in the news anymore, and I could have some hope that we wouldn't see completely untreatable cases of this common bacterial STD in my lifetime. That would be nice.

Unfortunately, the news continues to be pessimistic. An article on the subject in the February 7th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, opened with the phrase "It's time to sound the alarm," and I have to agree. There are more than 600,000 cases of gonorrhea reported every year - making it the second most common notifiable disease. It disproportionately affects the poor and other vulnerable populations. And now? The resistance to the last line of defense - third generation cephalosporins - is growing. The prevalence of strains with a reduced susceptibility to these drugs is more than 10 times what it was in 2006.

The bottom line is that we have to focus on effective treatment, while it's still available, and prevention - for when it's not. In other words, when individuals come in with gonorrhea, doctors have to give them an injection of ceftriaxone (along with a dose of azithromycin to cover any coexisting infections), convince them to bring any recent partners in for treat, and drive home how important it is to do a better job of practicing safe sex in the future. Maybe one day there will be other preventative options, like a vaccine, but probably not before we run out of reliable cures.



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Source: http://std.about.com/b/2012/02/13/scary-bacteria.htm

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