The treatment was changed to use a combination of the antibiotics ceftriaxone and azithromycin. Edward Hook, director of the STD Control Program for the Jefferson County, Alabama Department of Health, gonorrhea has been gradually building resistance to the antibiotics used to treat it.Ĭiprofloxacin used to be an antibiotic recommended by the CDC to treat gonorrhea in the 9os, but by 2007 the agency switched its protocol: a high percentage of gonorrhea cases were being reported resistant to the antibiotic. While it has since been deemed ineffective in treating COVID-19, experts say azithromycin is still being increasingly prescribed, which could worsen the existing problem of superbugs like antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea. It was even tested as a treatment for severe COVID-19 early in the pandemic. Azithromycin, an antibiotic used to treat gonorrhea, is also commonly prescribed for chest infections and pneumonia - conditions often seen in COVID-19 patients. The more bugs are exposed to the drugs used to kill them, the more familiar with it they can become, mutating to find ways to survive them. While there is no evidence of a rise in cases of pandemic-related drug-resistant gonorrhea just yet, experts told Insider it is a valid concern. The social media panic came after a World Health Organization (WHO) representative told the Sun that the sexually-transmitted illness gonorrhea may be becoming more resistant to certain antibiotics used to treat it, threatening a rise in cases of untreatable "super-gonorrhea." (The term stems from "superbugs," a colloquial term used to refer to bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics.) If you scrolled through Twitter over the weekend, you may have encountered a trending and terrifying phrase: super-gonorrhea. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.Super-gonorrhea is not more severe or transmissible than gonorrhea, but has fewer treatment options.But experts told Insider the over-prescription of antibiotics - either in attempts to treat COVID-19 or to treat related infections - could be making the STI more resistant to treatment.
The pandemic has not created a super strain of gonorrhea, nor do we have evidence of rising cases yet."Super-gonorrhea" began trending on Twitter over the weekend after a World Health Organization representative told the Sun the STI may be becoming more resistant to antibiotics.