An antibiotic-resistant sexually transmitted infection is on the rise.
The three British STD Home Test cases are nothing more than the confirmation of a trend that has been evident for years, caused by the abuse of antibiotic therapies.
Three positive test cases of gonorrhoea in the United Kingdom have led health authorities to raise the alarm in recent months. The bacteria caused by the NG and the second most widespread in the world after chlamydia has shown itself in a version that is very resistant to treatment. The same experts have named it “super gonorrhoea”, and unfortunately, it is yet another confirmation of the more worrying phenomenon of antibiotic resistance. NG was recently checked and identified as resistant to ceftriaxone. The main drug used to treat the bacterium in the UK. Similar STD Lab signals have been repeated for at least a decade. But since 2000, new drug-resistant strains have been recorded in Japan.
The real risk
The high risk is that treating some infections will only be possible if we design and produce more powerful and specific antibiotics. A practice that is not necessarily always possible and is, in turn, always harmless to health and quick to implement. On the other hand, antibiotic-resistant infections kill around one and a half million people in the world every year. These are diseases that we once got an STD Blood Test and treated and which, fundamentally due to the abuse and wrong prescriptions of antibiotics, we can no longer combat today, given that the bacteria have become used to the molecules that were enough to neutralise them in the past. It, as seen, is a particularly dynamic bacterium from this point of view.
Gonorrhea, if not treated, can be very serious. Not only can it help with the spread of other sexual diseases and lead to pain and chronic inflammation of the genitals, but it can also trigger pelvic inflammatory diseases in women, lead to early abortions, and increase the chances of ectopic pregnancy and infertility in men and women. The use of condoms remains the key to protecting yourself. Unfortunately, the Durex observatory, which dedicates time to watching the habits of young people, reports that only 46.3% use condoms regularly. Neisseria gono spreads through sex and via maternal-fetal transmission at birth. If the treatment of gonococcus is poor or not immediately after the infection, it can become resistant to different antibiotics. These antibiotics include penicillins, tetracyclines, macrolides and fluoroquinolones. You cannot have sex during treatment.
Antibiotic Resistance
“It is the consequence of abuse of inappropriate antibiotic treatments over the years. People treat themselves poorly instead of doing it themselves. And of the use of Doctor Google instead of turning to specialists”. Explains Alessandra Latini, head of the Diseases Unit STIs of the Hospital Physiotherapy Institutes (Ifo)-Istituto San Gallicano (Isg) of Rome. Corriere della Sera, who dedicated an in-depth analysis of the three cases, And Covid has made things worse: many infectious disease departments have suspended or reduced activities for months, so many cases of sexually transmitted STD rampant Infection went without notice and, as a result, more people were forced to self-medicate. A situation that can fuel the rise of both resistance to treatment and super gonorrhoea.”
How to recognise Neisseria gonorrhoea Infections to know when to test for it. Women should pay attention to burning sensations, difficulty urinating, yellow-green discharge and pain before and after sex. They should also pay attention to general vaginal itching. Men should pay attention to many secretions that are always green-yellow, burning sensations and difficulty urinating. If contracted through oral sex, it can trigger pharyngitis in both sexes. To be certain, you need urethral swabs for men or vaginal swabs for women. There are also oral and rectal exams. The material is then subject to the amplification of the nucleic acids, while the antibiogram will provide information on the sensitivity and resistance of the bacterium to antibiotics.
An alarming trend
“It’s too early to say whether this will be the start of a long-term trend. However, we do know that STIs are on the rise,” explained Dr Katy Sinka, head of the STD Section at the UK Health Security Agency. Contracting one of these conditions is not as simple as taking medicine and moving on with your life. If not properly treated, they can impact your health and your partner in the long term. Furthermore, AMR in the mix makes the impact even greater.
“We are seeing a worrying lack of progress in stopping the spread of STIs worldwide,” explained Peter Salama. He is the executive director for these issues at the World Health Organization. This is a wake-up call for an effort to ensure everyone has access to the services they need. They need to prevent and treat these debilitating diseases.” The treatment for syphilis has become more complex in recent times due to the global lows of benzathine penicillin. Syphilis caused 200,000 fetal deaths in 2016.
In conclusion
The problem is the comparison to the data made in 2012. The desired decline in current or new positive test infection rates for Neisseria gonorrhoea has not occurred. On average, about one in 25 people worldwide have at least one of these conditions, with many infected with several. The causes are sex without protection – vaginal, anal and oral – and, as seen, transmission during pregnancy or contact with blood products. A situation in which we could intervene effectively with sexual education operations. This includes the careful and appropriate use of contraceptive methods, including the wider use of condoms.