Gonorrhoea resistance to antibiotics worsens
A new World Health Organisation (WHO) report cautions that gonorrhoea is fast becoming resistant to existing antibiotics that are used in treating the sexually transmitted infection.
The new data was published in the WHO’s Enhanced Gonococcal Antimicrobial Surveillance Programme (EGASP) report, which is in charge of monitoring drug-resistant gonorrhoea.
About 12 countries in five WHO regions shared their data last year, an increase of 8, compared to the year 2022. The reported cumulative cases are about 3615.
Kenya is not among the countries whose data was shared.
The countries sampled include: Brazil, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malawi, the Philippines, Qatar, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand, Uganda and Viet Nam.
“Internal travel within countries was significantly associated with increased resistance to cefixime, ceftriaxone and azithromycin, indicating the potential role of mobility in the spread of multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoea (N. gonorrhoeae),” shows the report.
Dr Tereza Kasaeva, Director of the WHO Department for HIV, Tuberculosis (TB), Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) said in a statement on Wednesday that a global effort is essential to tracking, preventing, and responding to drug-resistant gonorrhoea and to protecting public health worldwide.
“WHO calls on all countries to address the rising levels of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and integrate gonorrhoea surveillance into national STI programmes,” she said.
The surveillance shows that the median age of patients whose gonorrhoea infection was resistant was about 27 years, but the age range sampled was between 12 and 94 years.
The data shows that 20 per cent of the cases were men who have sex with men, and 42 per cent reported multiple sexual partners within the past 30 days. Eight percent reported recent antibiotic use, and 19% had travelled recently.
In the last three years (2022 to 2024), resistant strains to the main antibiotics used to treat gonorrhoea were reported to have risen, with ceftriaxone (from 0.8 per cent to 5 per cent) and cefixime (from 1.7 per cent to 11 per cent).
The report shows that resistance to azithromycin did not change and remained at 4 per cent, while resistance to ciprofloxacin reached 95 per cent, with Cambodia and Viet Nam reporting the highest resistance rates.
“The detection of isolates resistant to all three key antimicrobial agents highlights the critical need for optimised treatment and rigorous monitoring at all levels of health-care facilities,” recommends the WHO.
“Overall, countries in the WHO Western Pacific Region consistently reported the highest levels of resistance across all tested antimicrobials. The African Region, the South-East Asia Region, the Eastern Mediterranean Region and the Region of the Americas also reported high resistance to at least one antimicrobial,” they added.
Results from trials on new treatments such as zoliflodacin and gepotidacin, as well as studies on tetracycline resistance, which were conducted by the WHO’s Collaborating Centre on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) are helping guide future gonorrhoea control.
“Despite notable progress, EGASP faces challenges, including limited funding, incomplete reporting, and gaps in data from women and extragenital sites. WHO calls for urgent investment, particularly in national surveillance systems, to sustain and expand global gonococcal AMR surveillance,” WHO said.
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