Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Wednesday August 31 2016, @12:07PM   Printer-friendly

The World Health Organization (WHO) is recommending the use of cephalosporins to treat gonorrhea rather than quinolones, due to emergence of quinolone-resistant strains. However, some strains of gonorrhea are already resistant to drugs in the newly recommended class of antibiotics:

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned back in 2012 that one of two drugs in the class of antibiotics the WHO now recommends, cephalosporins, was in danger of becoming useless to treat gonorrhea, at least in the U.S, and recommended that doctors stop prescribing it. Since then, the CDC's recommended treatment for gonorrhea has been a dual therapy, with the two antibiotics ceftriaxone and azithromycin, but an analysis in July warned that the bacteria could even become resistant to that combination.

As for when antibiotic options will run out altogether, Teodora Wi of the WHO's Department of Reproductive Health and Research tells the journal Science, "We will have to have new drugs in 5 years, I think." The U.S. government is spending millions of dollars through the CDC and National Institutes of Health to develop new antibiotics and combat resistance.

The WHO also revised its guidelines for treating two other sexually transmitted infections, chlamydia and syphilis. Neither is facing severe antibiotic resistance. Syphilis, for example, can be treated with a single dose of penicillin, although there is a worldwide shortage of the drug.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by Gravis on Wednesday August 31 2016, @01:39PM

    by Gravis (4596) on Wednesday August 31 2016, @01:39PM (#395669)

    sir, your tinfoil hat does not mean regulation standards.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2