Researchers have found antibiotic-resistant strain of gonorrhoea in Japan. The new strain of sexually transmitted disease known as H041 cannot be killed by any of currently recommended treatments for gonorrhoea. The analysis of gonorrhoea causing bacterium found a new variant that is very effective at mutating.
The research team from the Swedish Reference Laboratory warns that the contamination could become an international threat to public health. Gonorrhoea is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases globally. Nearly fifty percent of women infected with gonorrhoea have no symptoms. The same is accurate for two to five percent of men.
Whereas, the symptomatic gonorrhoea is characterized by a burning sensation when urinating van can cause discharge from the genitals. If left untreated, the condition can escort to grave and irrevocable health complications in women as well as in men. By analyzing this new strain of neisseria gonorrhoea, it was identified that genetic mutations accountable for the new strain’s extreme resistance to all cephalosporin-class antibiotics.
The class of cephalosporin antibiotics is used to treat a wide range of bacterial infections. They are also intimately associated with the penicillins. According to Dr Magnus Unemo, from the Swedish Research Laboratory for Pathogenic Neisseria, it was an alarming and predictable discovery.
As antibiotics became the standard treatment for gonorrhoea in the 1940s, this bacterium has shown a remarkable capacity to develop resistance mechanisms to all drugs introduced to control it. While it is still too early to evaluate whether this new strain has become widespread, stated Dr Unemo
Unemo added however that experience from earlier degrees of resistance acquired by gonorrhea recommended this new multi-drug resistant strain could spread around the world within decades. The cephalosporin antibiotics used in the UK are still effective for treating gonorrhoea, explained Dr David Livermore from the antibiotic resistance monitoring laboratory at the Health Protection Agency.
However, their lab tests show that the bacteria are becoming less sensitive to these cephalosporins, with a few treatment failures reported. This means that they have to change the type of cephalosporin that is used and to increase the dosage, stated Dr Livermore.