Over the weekend, a particularly awful pair of words began Trending On social media: Super gonorrhea. That’s because the World Health Organization recently warned that the epidemic could help boost the development of antibiotics.Resistant bacteria, including bacteria that cause gonorrhea. Unfortunately, The situation is just that Possibility To get worse.
Antibiotic resistance, a crisis that has been slowly emerging for decades, boot The effects are finally becoming harder to ignore. Currently, so-called superbugs kill about 35,000 Americans Annually, as well as 700,000 People Globally.
One more worrying Superbug threats Is today Neisseria gonorrhea, Nasal bacteria that cause gonorrhea. Gonorrhea is usually not fatal and often has no symptoms, bIf left untreated it can lead to complications such as arthritis, joint pain and skin rashes, as well as infertility and chronic pelvic pain. Bacteria can also be passed from mother to her baby during delivery, provoking infections that can be fatal or cause serious problems such as blindness. Significant Symptoms include a green or yellow discharge from the genitals and pain when urinating.
These bacteria are as horrible as they are Become Impenetrable First-Line antibiotics are used to treat them. In 2018, UK doctors reported The first known case of gonorrhea was found in a person who was highly resistant to the combination therapy used as standard treatment in most countries: the antibiotics ceftriaxone and azithromycin. Although man’s gonorrhea could be treated with other antibiotics, this case confirms the experts’ bad fears. No other cases Super gonorrhea, As well as other highly resistant Sexually transmitted infections, Has been documented since.
G / O media can get commission
During this year, there have been experts from the World Health Organization and elsewhere Sound The alarm about antibiotic resistance is getting worse due to the epidemic. For one, doctors regularly prescribe antibiotics for Kovid-19, hospitalized patients, which is a disease caused by a virus (antibiotics, as a rule, do not work against the virus). Obviously, this is done because hospitalized patients can develop secondary infections caused by bacteria. Preliminary research also suggested that the antibiotic azithromycin may have an additional antiviral effect, possibly in combination with other drugs such as other hydroxychloroquine.
Since then, however, there have been studies Found It is taken with azithromycin, alone or with hydroxychloroquine, none of them Live effect On Covid-19 patients. There is other research Found Doctors usually prescribe antibiotics to patients without any evidence of a bacterial infection..
That brings us to last week, when the UK outlet The Sun reported on a WHO warning about gonorrhea. In addition to the above issues, the WHO also notes that epidemics delay people in STI testing and medical care, raising the risk that people will either not find out about their gonorrhea or try to self-medicate inappropriately.. This Misuse and overuse of antibiotics, especially azithromycin, adds more dynamite to the powder keg which is super gonorrhea.
A spokesman for the WHO said, “Such a situation could accelerate the emergence of resistance in gonorrhea.” Said Sun:
The worst thing is that recently there has been an increase in the rate of gonorrhea and other STIs in many places. For example, the U.S. Record number In 2018, STI There are reports of gonorrhea in the fifth year. It is possible (Also possible) That this epidemic has dampened the sexual activity of many people this year. But antibiotics-Resistant bacteria have not gone away, And cases of super gonorrhea and other highly resistant infections will undoubtedly continue to increase in the coming years.
There is still hope that enough new antibiotics and Other therapies may develop over time Avoid worst-Case scenario, where common bacterial infections become as dangerous as a century ago. Scientists are also working Vaccines For diseases like gonorrhea. But there is none An obvious remedy On the horizon, And the clock is ticking. In 2014, a report was issued by the UK government Estimate That, if nothing was done, the annual worldwide death by antibiotic-Resistant infections will eclipse cancer deaths by 2050, with 10 million people dying each year. Until then, super gonorrhea will be the least of our worries.
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