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A pressure of gonorrhea resistant to multiple classes of antibiotics recently infected two people in Massachusetts, the state Department of Public Health Announced (opens in a new tab) Thursday (January 19). This is the first time “resistance or reduced response to five classes of antibiotics has been identified in gonorrhea in the United States,” the department reported.
Gonorrhea is a common sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacteria Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Over time, the bacteria grew resistant to most antibiotics historically used to kill it, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (opens in a new tab) (CDC) that it is only a matter of time until it becomes resistant to the only currently recommended treatment, an antibiotic called ceftriaxone. (Under specific circumstances (opens in a new tab)other antibiotics may still be used instead of ceftriaxone, but they are not widely recommended.)
Sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinics across the US routinely monitor for resistant strains N. gonorrhoeae by testing the bugs’ response to seven different antibiotics; these include drugs currently and previously used to treat gonorrhea. In one Massachusetts resident, officials detected a strain resistant to three of those drugs and showing “reduced susceptibility” to three others, including ceftriaxone, they reported in caution (opens in a new tab) to clinicians. Bugs with “reduced susceptibility” to a drug do not have full-blown resistance but are less sensitive to the treatment than usual.
The officers recognized him seconds later N. gonorrhoeae a sample from another person showing the same resistance and, in particular, a similar reduced response to ceftriaxone; that conclusion was based on genetic analysis of the strain. “No direct link has been identified” between the two gonorrhea cases, the department noted.
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Although the strain showed some resistance to ceftriaxone, both patients were successfully cured with the recommended dose of the antibiotic. This finding reinforces the CDC’s recommendation to use high doses of the antibiotic ceftriaxone to treat all cases of gonorrhea and to perform follow-up tests to ensure that all patients with gonorrhea are successfully treated,” the Department of Health said.
However, there are still concerns in the cases as this is the first N. gonorrhoeae a strain detected in the US showing resistance or reduced susceptibility to six of the seven routinely screened antibiotics, CBS reported (opens in a new tab).
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health is now investigating whether others in the state are experiencing the same strain. To do so, the department is conducting contact tracing and working with the CDC and local health care centers to collect and analyze additional data. N. gonorrhoeae examples.
“The identification of this strain, similar to that recently reported in the UK and previously reported circulating in Asia-Pacific countries, is a warning. N. gonorrhoeae becoming less responsive to a limited antibiotic arsenal,” says the Department’s alert.
“The concern is that this particular strain is spreading around the world, so it was only a matter of time before it hit the US,” Dr Jeffrey Klausner (opens in a new tab)clinical professor of public health at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles CNN (opens in a new tab). “We haven’t had new antibiotics to treat gonorrhea in years and we really need another treatment strategy.”
