United States: A very major increase in antibiotic- resistant gonorrhea which is also known as “super-gonorrhea.” Cases have almost nearly doubled, with some antibiotics which are ineffective against the bacteria Neisseria gonorrhoeae, which causes the infection.
Gonorrhea Statistics and Demographic Shifts
Gonorrhea is the second-most common STI in the U.S., with nearly 650,000 cases reported in 2022, marking an 11 increase since 2018.
The rise in infections is also affecting aged grown-ups, with cases of gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis in Americans aged 55 to 64 further than doubling in the once decade.
Concerns from Recent Reports
As reported by yahoo life, its’s really concerning given that almost half of the U.S. gonorrhea infection in the 2022 were resistant to at least one antibiotic according to a May 2024 report on the super-gonorrhea published in the JAMA Network.
As the author of the report put it Gonorrhea continues to outsmart the drugs used to give it a tough fight.
Global and U.S. Cases
The Canadian report called antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea which is a serious public health threat and said the STI’s ability to withstand two antibiotics used to treat it and cefftriazone and azithromycin is really a global concern cases have been reported in multiple countries beyond Canada including the United Kingdom, France, China and Japan.
And United States had its first case of the superbug in 2023 in Massachusetts with the health authorities there saying it was resistant to five different antibiotics, so where did antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea come from?
How concerned should you and what can you do to protect yourself.
What causes antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea?
In a nutshell, it’s “misuse of antibiotics,” Dr. Hana El Sahly who is professor of molecular and virology also microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, tells Yahoo Life.
Causes and Expert Insights
Dr. Amesh Adalja, who is an infectious disease health expert at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, explains that bacteria have “dominated this planet for billions of years” and over time have evolved so they can survive.
“Antibiotics are often natural products produced by other microbes that they use against each other, so antibiotic resistance is a not surprising evolutionary adaptation,” he tells Yahoo Life.
He adds that humans using antibiotics “injudiciously — for unnecessary conditions, for example — can accelerate this natural evolutionary process.”