Resistant gonorrhoea strain may threaten global health
July 11th, 2011 - 4:49 pm ICT by IANSToronto, July 11 (IANS) A new strain of gonorrhoea, resistant to all available antibiotics, is likely to turn the once easily treatable infection into a global health threat.
Universite Laval researchers in Canada successfully identified an unknown variant of the bacterium that causes gonorrhoea, neisseria gonorrhoeae.
Gonorrhoea is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases in the world. In the US alone, Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), estimates the number of cases is estimated at 700,000 annually.
Analyzing this new strain, dubbed H041, allowed them to identify the genetic mutations responsible for the bacterium’s extreme resistance to all cephalosporin-class antibiotics - the last remaining drugs still effective in treating gonorrhoea, according to a Laval statement.
“This is both an alarming and a predictable discovery,” noted Magnus Unemo, who led the study.
“Since 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 assess if this new strain has become widespread, the history of newly emergent resistance in the bacterium suggests that it may spread rapidly unless new drugs and effective treatment programs are developed,” Unemo said.
Gonorrhoea is asymptomatic in about 50 percent of infected women and approximately two to five percent of men. When symptomatic, it is characterized by a burning sensation when urinating and pus discharge from the genitals.
In women, the infection can cause chronic pelvic pain and ectopic pregnancy. It can lead to infertility, mostly in women but also in men, and it increases the risk of HIV transmission.
In three to four percent of the cases, untreated infections spread to the skin, blood, joints, or even the heart.
Babies born of infected mothers are at high risk of developing serious blood and joint infections.
Passage through the birth canal of an infected mother can cause blindness in the infant.
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Tags: 1940s, antibiotics, bacterium, burning sensation, cdc, chronic pelvic pain, common sexually transmitted diseases, disease control and prevention, extreme resistance, genetic mutations, genitals, global health, health threat, high risk, hiv transmission, new drugs, pus discharge, remarkable capacity, resistance mechanisms, treatment for gonorrhoea