Alarming data have recent been reported (Yin & Chen) (Y&C) from the China Gonococcal Resistance Surveillance Programme (China-GRSP), covering seven (mostly coastal) provinces in the period 2013-2016. The study is relevant for Chinese national treatment policy, which currently recommends azithromycin monotherapy. However, with an estimated 45% of the world’s 78 million incident cases occurring in […]
Category: Gonorrhoea
Can laboratory-guided treatment of gonorrhoea with ciprofloxacin help to stem the emergence of resistance to ceftiaxone?
With antimicrobial-resistant gonorrhoea now an urgent health threat, requiring improved antibiotic stewardship, one option frequently proposed is laboratory-guided recycling of older antibiotics (Lewis (STI); Ison & Unemo (STI); A new kind of treatment for gonorrhoea? (STI/blogs)). Lewis (STI) alludes to the potential use of floroquinolone therapy – specifically in respect to the oropharyngx, which is […]
A new kind of treatment for multi-resistant gonorrhoea?
Recent research at York University (Ward & Lynam (W&L)), UK, suggests the possible efficacity of carbon monoxide-releasing molecules as an antimicrobial against gonorrhoea. The work is at an early stage – but the urgency of our current situation lends it a heightened interest. Growing resistance of Neisseria gonorrhoeae (Ng) to the last-defence antibiotic treatments (Lewis/STIs) […]
Fresh WHO guidelines on gonorrhoea management + latest US surveillance data on gonorrhoea resistance
The emergence in various locations of resistant strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae (Ng) is narrowing the therapeutic options. The recent (July 2016) WHO Guidelines, revised from 2003, reflect the concern both to treat effectively and steward our remaining defences against the infection in a globally coordinated manner. They recommend either dual therapy with either single dose […]
Is increasing gonorrhoea resistance in MSM is a result of more treatment, rather than greater sexual activity?
Emerging antibiotic resistance to the last-ditch treatment of Neisseria gonorrhoeae compels health policy-makers to balance opposing concerns. On the one hand, successfully combating spread of the infection requires targeted treatment of core-group individuals. On the other, a focus on the core-group causes a rebound in core-group incidence, with maximal dissemination of resistance (Chan & McCabe/STIs (C&M); […]
Warding off the scourge of untreatable gonorrhoea?
A recent analysis (Kircaldy & Papp (K&P) of 2006-2014 US CDC (Centre for Disease Control and Prevention) data on Neisseria gonorrhea (NG) susceptibility to cefixime and ceftriaxone in isolates suggests a halt in the drift to resistance over the period 2011-13 followed by a return in 2014 to the upward trend. Among isolates from […]
Incidental gonorrhoea screening in the general population via dual NAAT is no benefit
Fifer & Ison (STIs) express concern over the use of the “dual” nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) for the detection of chlamydia and gonorrhoea in the context of chlamydia screening in the UK. Additional testing for gonorrhoea, when the real target is chlamydia, does not necessarily confer an additional net benefit. This is because even […]
Trialling innovative approaches to STI partner services: Partner-Delivered vv. Accelerated Partner Therapy
It is vital to treat partners of patients with curable STIs as quickly as possible. But the effectiveness of interventions to achieve this proves hard to measure – and the case for increasing resources correspondingly difficult to make. The inadequacy of the resources available to existing partner services has led some investigators in the US […]
Gonorrhoea antimicrobial resistance: is UK antibiotic stewarding policy shows “some success”
A widely circulated press release from the Society of General Microbiology’s (SGM) Annual Conference 2014 (April 14th – 17th) reports that Health for England’s Gonorrhoea Resistance Action Plan, according to representative, Dr Catherine Ison, “has shown some success in delaying the onset of treatment failure to the oral antibiotic cefixime”. At issue here is the […]
“Stewarding” may be the best policy for prolonging the efficacy of anti-Gonorrhoea drugs
With reports of the growing resistance of Neisseria gonorrhoeae to cephalosporins, currently the last weapon in the antibiotic armoury, control seems rapidly to be running out of options. Given the 21,183 reported cases in the UK (2011) – over half the EU total for the same year – this is a matter of grave public […]