By James Gallagher
Oral sex is producing dangerous gonorrhoea and a decline in
condom use is helping it to spread, the World Health Organization has said.
It warns that if someone contracts gonorrhoea, it is now
much harder to treat, and in some cases impossible.
The sexually transmitted infection is rapidly developing
resistance to antibiotics.
Experts said the situation was "fairly grim" with
few new drugs on the horizon.
About 78 million people pick up the STI each year and it can
cause infertility.
The World Health Organization analysed data from 77
countries, which showed gonorrhoea's resistance to antibiotics was widespread.
Dr. Teodora Wi, from the WHO, said there had even been three
cases - in Japan, France and Spain - where the infection was completely
untreatable.
She said: "Gonorrhoea is a very smart bug, every time
you introduce a new class of antibiotics to treat gonorrhoea, the bug becomes
resistant."
Worryingly, the vast majority of gonorrhoea infections are
in poor countries where resistance is harder to detect.
"These cases may just be the tip of the iceberg,"
she added.
Throat infection
Gonorrhoea can infect the genitals, rectum and throat, but
it is the last that is most concerning health officials.
Dr. Wi said antibiotics could lead to bacteria in the back
of the throat, including relatives of gonorrhoea, developing resistance.
She said: "When you use antibiotics to treat infections
like a normal sore throat, this mixes with the Neisseria species in your throat
and this results in resistance."
Thrusting gonorrhoea bacteria into this environment through
oral sex can lead to super-gonorrhoea.
"In the US, resistance [to an antibiotic] came from men
having sex with men because of pharyngeal infection," she added.
A decline in condom use, which had soared because of fears
of HIV/Aids, is thought to help the infection spread.
What is gonorrhoea?
The disease is caused by the bacterium called Neisseria
gonorrhoea.
The infection is spread by unprotected vaginal, oral and
anal sex.
Symptoms can include a thick green or yellow discharge from
sexual organs, pain when urinating and bleeding between periods.
However, of those infected, about one in 10 heterosexual men
and more than three-quarters of women, and gay men, have no easily recognisable
symptoms.
Untreated infection can lead to infertility, pelvic
inflammatory disease and can be passed on to a child during pregnancy.
The World Health Organization is calling on countries to
monitor the spread of resistant gonorrhoea and to invest in new drugs.
Dr Manica Balasegaram, from the Global Antibiotic Research
and Development Partnership, said: "The situation is fairly grim.
"There are only three drug candidates in the entire
drug [development] pipeline and no guarantee any will make it out."
But ultimately, the WHO said vaccines would be needed to
stop gonorrhoea.
Prof Richard Stabler, from the London School of Hygiene
& Tropical Medicine, said: "Ever since the introduction of penicillin,
hailed as a reliable and quick cure, gonorrhoea has developed resistance to all
therapeutic antibiotics.
"In the past 15 years therapy has had to change three
times following increasing rates of resistance worldwide.
"We are now at a point where we are using the drugs of
last resort, but there are worrying signs as treatment failure due to resistant
strains has been documented."
Is oral sex more common now?
It's hard to say if more people around the world are having
more oral sex than they used to, as there isn't much reliable global data
available.
Data from the UK and US show it's very common, and has been
for years, including among teenagers.
The UK's first National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and
Lifestyles, carried out in 1990-1991, found 69.7% of men and 65.6% of women had
given oral sex to, or received it from, a partner of the opposite sex in the
previous year.
By the time of the second survey during 1999-2001, this had
increased to 77.9% for men and 76.8% for women, but hasn't changed much since.
A national survey in the US, meanwhile, has found about
two-thirds of 15-24 year olds have ever had oral sex.
Dr. Mark Lawton from the British Association for Sexual
Health and HIV said people with gonorrhoea in the throat would be unlikely to
realise it and thus be more likely to pass it on via oral sex.
He recognises that while condoms would reduce the risk of
transmission, many people wouldn't want to use them.
"My message would be to get tested so at least if
you've got it you know about it," Dr. Lawton said.
~BBC News
0 comments:
Post a Comment