Updated: Maryn McKenna has weighed in on this story as well this morning, with her Superbug blog:
The Clap Came Back: Multi-Drug Resistant Gonorrhea
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Photo Credit CDC- PHIL.
In a bit of a follow up to Saturday’s blog The Path Of Increased Resistance regarding last week’s MMWR on the rise of antibiotic resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae, today the media is overrun with stories about a paper to be delivered later today at the International Society for Sexually Transmitted Diseases Research in Quebec City.
A few examples include:
Swedish researcher finds resistant gonorrhea
New gonorrhea strain alarms experts
The abstract to this paper may be found on page 76A of the ISSTDR abstract book (Free PDF) :
doi:10.1136/sextrans-2011-050109.121M Ohnishi,M Unemo,D Golparian,K Shimuta,T Saika, S Hoshina,K Iwasaku,S I Nakayama,J Kitawaki
While making a media splash today, the actual discovery of this resistant strain was made in 2009 in a 31 year-old female sex worker in Japan, and reported in the CDC’s EID journal (Volume 17, Number 1–January 2011) as Ceftriaxone-Resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Japan.
What is new today is the H041 strain has been extensively characterized, phenotypically and genetically, to confirm the initial findings and to provide more details on the mechanisms of resistance.
The bottom line, from the abstract, is that:
H041 proved highly resistant to ceftriaxone (2-4 mg/l, which is 4-8-fold higher than any previously described isolate) and all other cephalosporins, as well as most other antimicrobials tested.
The biological fitness and transmissibility of this resistant strain has yet to be determined, and it is unknown how much (if at all) it has spread over the past couple of years.
Resistant strains, however, have a history of eventually propagating.
With 700,000 new cases in the United States, and millions globally each year, the stakes here are very high. Should a cephalosporin resistant strain begin to dominate, the treatment options today are very limited.
Just as we’ve seen with MRSA, NDM-1, KPC and a host of other constantly evolving pathogens, unless we can develop new classes of effective antibiotics, our victories over them may prove short lived.
Related Post:
- ECDC: Multidrug Resistant Infections Increasing In Europe
- CHP: Review Of NDM-1 In Hong Kong
- Referral: McKenna On Resistant Gonorrhea
- Study: Antimicrobial Prescribing Practices During The 2009 Pandemic
- ECDC Response Plan To Multi-Drug Resistant Gonorrhea
- WHO: Urgent Action Needed On Resistant Gonorrhea
- Referral: McKenna Times Four
- HPA: Healthcare-Associated Infection (HCAI) Survey
- FDA Statement On Azithromycin & Cardiovascular Risks
- NEJM: Cardiovascular Risks Of Taking Azithromycin
- Video: Maryn McKenna On Antibiotic Resistance
- ECDC Comment On Drug Resistant TB In India
- Get Smart About Antibiotics Week
- CDDEP: Mapping Resistance
- NDM-1: One Year Later
- The Global Spread Of Drug Resistant Salmonella
- Study: Prior Antibiotic Use & MRSA In Children
- ECDC: Defining Bacterial Drug Resistance
- IDSA: Educational Guidelines Lower Antibiotic Use
- The Path Of Increased Resistance
- Updating Hong Kong’s Scarlet Fever Outbreak
- When Old Bacteria Learns New Tricks
- Study: Sub-Therapeutic Antibiotic Exposure Drives Resistance
- UK: `New MRSA’ Strain Spreading
- CHP: Review Of NDM-1 In Hong Kong
- A Health Crisis In Slow Motion
- India: Still Looking For A Policy On Antibiotics
- Study: Antimicrobial Prescribing Practices During The 2009 Pandemic
- NDM-1: A Matter Of Import
- Referral: McKenna Times Four
- HPA: Healthcare-Associated Infection (HCAI) Survey
- Chan: World Faces A `Post-Antibiotic Era’
- WHO: The Evolving Threat Of Antimicrobial Resistance
- Get Smart About Antibiotics Week
- South African Statement On NDM-1 Cases
- India: The NDM-1 Story Continues
- India Puts Antibiotic Regulations On Hold
- CDDEP: Mapping Resistance
- NDM-1: One Year Later
- ECDC: Defining Bacterial Drug Resistance
- Netherlands: Large Nosocomial KPC Outbreak
- The Path Of Increased Resistance
- Referral: McKenna On Drug Resistant E. Coli And Chickens
- More On Hong Kong's Scarlet Fever Outbreak
- When Old Bacteria Learns New Tricks
- Study: Sub-Therapeutic Antibiotic Exposure Drives Resistance
- UK: `New MRSA’ Strain Spreading
- India Looks For (And Finds) NDM-1
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