'Super-Gonorrhea' May Be Untreatable

Gonorrhea may soon be untreatable, according to Dame Sally Davies, Britain's chief Medical officer.

The sexually transmitted infection is increasingly caused by strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae, which resist antibiotic treatments, according to The Washington Post. 

"Gonorrhoea is at risk of becoming an untreatable disease due to the continuing emergence of antimicrobial resistance," Davies wrote in the letter, co-signed by England's chief pharmaceutical officer, Dr. Keith Ridge. "Gonorrhoea has rapidly acquired resistance to new antibiotics, leaving few alternatives to the current recommendations. It is therefore extremely important that suboptimal treatment does not occur."

In the United States, there were just over 350,000 cases of gonorrhea in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC);  Britain had about 35,000. Yet as of March, Public Health England has detected at least 16 cases of "super-gonorrhoea" or the antibiotic-resistant type. 

As it stands, gonorrhoea remains the second most common sexually transmitted infection in England.

"Investigations are ongoing into a number of cases of anti-microbial resistant gonorrhoea," Dr. Andrew Lee, from Public Health England, said in a statement. "Public Health England will continue to monitor, and act on, the spread of antimicrobial resistance and potential gonorrhoea treatment failures, to make sure they are identified and managed promptly."

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