Gonorrhea Getting Harder to Treat - Antibiotic Resistance Pushing Gonorrhea Toward Superbug Status

Gonorrhea is a common sexually transmitted bacterial infection. If left untreated, gonorrhea can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy, and infertility in women. Treatment for gonorrhea usually consists of a single dose of one of two antibiotics, cefixime or ceftriaxone.

The current drugs of choice, ceftriaxone and cefixime, are still very effective but there are signs that resistance, particularly to cefixime, is emerging and soon these drugs may not be a good choice.

Only one remaining class of antibiotics is recommended for the treatment of gonorrhea - cephalosporins. Historically, gonorrhea has progressively developed resistance to the antibiotic drugs prescribed to treat it. Thus, it is critical to continuously monitor antibiotic resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

As a side note that highlights the prevalence of the problem, there are at least 10 songs titled "Gonorrhea" by various artists in the Amazon.com MP3 music store.



CDCStreamingHealth | April 16, 2010: This video, produced by Be Smart. Be Well., raises awareness of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs): 1) What are they? 2) Why they matter? and, 3) What can I do about them? Footage courtesy of Be Smart. Be Well. http://www.besmartbewell.com, featuring CDC's Dr. John Douglas, Division of Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention.

References:

Gonorrhea Getting Harder to Treat. WebMD.
Sex infection gonorrhea risks becoming "superbug". Reuters.
Antibiotic Resistant Gonorrhea. CDC.

Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) - Diagnosis and Management Slideshow from Medscape http://goo.gl/uzwA

Rock star Ozzy Osbourne to CNN: "Between drugs and STDs, I'm lucky to be alive today"

"Ozzy Osbourne, the former front man of rock group Black Sabbath, says that after decades of living a life of drugs and sex, he's lucky to be alive today.

Osbourne described how he often played a dangerous game when it came to using drugs and having promiscuous sex. "With the drugs, it nearly killed me on a daily basis -- I did a lot of heavy drug taking for a long time and I survived it by the grace of God.

Answering a viewer's question on whether he realized his power to change people's lives, Osbourne replied with shock. "When you're on the inside looking, you don't see it that way," Osbourne said. "But I suppose you're right. I do -- I do have the power to change people's lives."

References:
Ozzy Osbourne: I'm living on borrowed time. CNN.

"Researchers studying Ozzy Osbourne's DNA found that the singer is descendant of Neanderthals" http://goo.gl/7Fa8

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