|
 Giving details of studies showing a "very serious situation" with
regard to highly drug-resistant forms of the sexually-transmitted
disease (STD), WHO experts said it was "only a matter of time"
before last-resort gonorrhoea antibiotics would be of no use.
"Gonorrhoea is a very smart bug," said Teodora Wi, a human
reproduction specialist at the Geneva-based U.N. health agency.
"Every time you introduce a new type of antibiotic to treat it, this
bug develops resistance to it."
The WHO estimates 78 million people a year get gonorrhoea, an STD
that can infect the genitals, rectum and throat.
The infection, which in many cases has no symptoms on its own, can
lead to pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy and
infertility, as well as increasing the risk of getting HIV.
Wi, who gave details in a telephone briefing of two studies on
gonorrhoea published in the journal PLOS Medicine, said one had
documented three specific cases - one each in Japan, France and
Spain - of patients with strains of gonorrhoea against which no
known antibiotic is effective.
"These are cases that can infect others. It can be transmitted," she
told reporters. "And these cases may just be the tip of the iceberg,
since systems to diagnose and report untreatable infections are
lacking in lower-income countries where gonorrhoea is actually more
common."
DRUG RESISTANCE
The WHO's program for monitoring trends in drug-resistant gonorrhoea
found in a study that from 2009 to 2014 there was widespread
resistance to the first-line medicine ciprofloxacin, increasing
resistance to another antibiotic drugs called azithromycin, and the
emergence of resistance to last-resort treatments known as
extended-spectrum cephalosporins (ESCs).
[to top of second column] |
In most countries, it said, ESCs are now the only single antibiotics
that remain effective for treating gonorrhoea. Yet resistance to
them has already been reported in 50 countries.
Manica Balasegaram, director of the Global Antibiotic Research and
Development Partnership, said the situation was "grim" and there was
a "pressing need" for new medicines.
The pipeline, however, is very thin, with only three potential new
gonorrhoea drugs in development and no guarantee any will prove
effective in final-stage trials, he said.
"We urgently need to seize the opportunities we have with existing
drugs and candidates in the pipeline," he told reporters. "Any new
treatment developed should be accessible to everyone who needs it,
while ensuring it is used appropriately, so that drug resistance is
slowed as much as possible."
(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Gareth Jones)
[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
