The only oral antibiotic to treat gonorrhea failed to cure nearly seven percent of gonorrhea was ill patients who are treated at the clinic Toronto

gonorrhea picture by nbcnews

The only oral antibiotic to treat gonorrhea failed to cure nearly seven percent of gonorrhea was ill patients who are treated at the clinic Toronto



The only oral antibiotic to treat gonorrhea failed to cure nearly seven percent of gonorrhea was ill patients who are treated at the clinic Toronto, Canadian researchers said on Monday (7/1), the first published study on drug-resistant gonorrhea in North America.

The study is raising concerns among U.S. health officials, who have instructed doctors to stop prescribing antibiotics, known by the name of cefixime, because laboratory tests showed gonorrhea began to develop resistance to the drug. Conditions that make the U.S. doctors have only one effective cure for most cases of gonorrhea, injectable antibiotics known as ceftriaxone.

"We are very concerned by the potential threat of gonorrhea that can not be treated in the United States," said Dr. Gail Bolan, director of the Division of Disease Sexually Transmitted through at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There has been a number of cases in Europe, but "this is the first time we face the fact of such reports in North America," said Dr. Gail Bolan. "We are just a matter of time until drug resistance will emerge in the United States."

Until now, most of the signs of resistance to antibiotics in gonorrhea in North America have been detected in laboratory experiments, which have shown an increase in the number of antibiotic cefixime continue, which is marketed by the name Suprax Lupin Ltd, which is necessary to kill gonorrhea.

"We have seen one case before, but this is the first report aired, and this is the first case series in North America," said Dr. Vanessa Allen of Public Health Ontario in Canada. He led the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Allen and colleagues studied nearly 300 people suffering from gonorrhea between May 2010 and April 2011. They were treated with cefixime at a clinic in Toronto, looking for patients who are infected during follow-up visits.

A total of 300 patients in the early stages, 133 returned for another examination. Among them, 13 patients were infected, but only nine said they did not have sex, which may make them infected again. That makes the failure rate was 6.7 percent.

Allen said the study was preliminary findings, but nonetheless important because it offers a reinforcement that people treated with cefixime is not cured. It also refers to the examination of more recent weakness based on DNA, which is used for gonorrhea.

Previously, doctors take a sample of fluid from the patient and develop gonorrhea bacteria examination in laboratory dish, which is then used to identify resistance to drugs. Further examination on the basis of DNA, such as the examination of nucleic acid amplification, could be used to check for resistance to antibiotics.