Barry, who helped to reveal that cephalosporins are becoming unreliable and now works for the California Department of Public Health, says the news of burgeoning resistance has not reached either patients or most frontline physicians. “We need to make clinicians aware of the problem and to make patients aware that it is not normal for symptoms to come back,” he says.

For any infectious disease, the ultimate control strategy is vaccination, but so far attempts to create a vaccine against gonorrhea have failed. Meanwhile, although infectious disease experts strongly encourage research into new antibiotics for gonorrhea, only one clinical trial is under way, and it is investigating combinations of older drugs, not new compounds. Some older drugs, such as azithromycin, have already started losing effectiveness against gonorrhea bacteria.

All these efforts—to educate physicians and patients, to track resistant strains and to develop new treatments—must be carefully targeted and well coordinated with one another. If not, truly untreatable gonorrhea, and its expensive, destructive consequences, could be the worldwide result. 

This article was originally published with the title Return of the Clap.

5 Comments

1. 1. Grumpyoleman 02:13 PM 5/11/12

   So the "gleep" is back. Thankfully, I'm too old to worry about it.

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2. 2. stan e m 04:04 PM 5/14/12

   everyone should be tested(every six mnth) and marked if infected.Std would be extinct if this was done 50 yrs ago.

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3. 3. jgrosay 09:46 AM 5/19/12

   In Spain, clap was called "Gota militar->Military drop", but some people having a connection with the army remark that gota militar can be also civilian and ecclesiastical.
   Those advocating screening test to detect hidden STDs must remember that the subject has been addressed before, and now there is an acceptably good image on in whom and how often screening tests are worth doing (See CDC). Even if you made, for example, HIV tests every other week in high risk people, you'll miss cases and never have a total interruption of the transmission chain, as an important window effect exists for detecting this and other transmissible diseases, and a person can be infected and pass the contagion to others in the few hours between one screening test and the next one. A change in habits would be the best approach to reduce the incidence of STDs, but taking into account how much we humans like sex, our innate preference for sexual drive over self-preservation instinct, and the previous generations' experiences about this, total erradication looks like an impossible task.

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4. 4. carrotwax 01:32 AM 5/24/12

   As much as testing as desired, criminalization of sex with knowledge of an STD creates a disincentive for testing as is well known with HIV. Testing is a useful tool, but psychologically the ones who are most likely to contract STDs are also more likely to spread it via risky and compulsive behaviors.
   
   Furthermore, science is one thing but business models are another. Profit motive is what often determines research directions, not health or utilitarian goals. Vaccines can create massive benefit, but they are only bought once. I would like to see more vaccine research myself, but in an ever increasing profit driven system, there is likely going to be only limit research.

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5. 5. missing link 07:07 AM 12/26/12

   Hi,
   
   I found this website to have a lot of information on Gonorrhea and other std's so I hope it helps some of you.
   http://www.the-clap.com

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