Credit CDC
# 6487
A topic that Maryn McKenna and I have both blogged about at length over the past year – Increasingly Drug Resistant Gonorrhea - was the subject of a major announcement out of the CDC yesterday.
In the wake of rising treatment failures with the existing treatment protocol, Thursday’s MMWR contained new guidelines on the treatment of gonorrhea, making the oral antibiotic cefixamine no longer the first line drug of choice, and substituting injectable ceftriaxone along with oral doses of either azithromycin or doxycycline.
Last night, Maryn McKenna – Flublogia’s expert in all things antibiotic resistant - wrote about this bulletin in her SUPERBUG BLOG, and so I would invite you to jump over to her site to read:
Resistant Gonorrhea: CDC Says Just One Drug Left
- By Maryn McKenna
- August 9, 2012 |
This problem extends far beyond the growing incidence of resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae. You’ll find Maryn’s 2010 book Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA serves as a terrific wakeup call and primer covering a wide range of these resistance issues.
We’ve known this day was coming, of course. Over the past year I’ve written about the warning signs in:
ECDC Response Plan To Multi-Drug Resistant Gonorrhea
WHO: Urgent Action Needed On Resistant Gonorrhea
History has taught us – that given enough time – bacterial pathogens often manage to evolve resistance to whatever antibiotics we use against them.
With few new classes of antimicrobials in the developmental pipeline, the fear is that a few years down the road, our ability to treat even the simplest of infections may be compromised.
Director-General Margaret Chan of the WHO warned earlier this year during a keynote address to the Conference on Combating Antimicrobial Resistance in Copenhagen, Denmark that our World Faces A `Post-Antibiotic Era’.
The D-G’s entire remarks may be viewed on the WHO’s website at Antimicrobial resistance in the European Union and the world, but I’ve excerpted a few choice statements below, after which you’ll find a link to the World Health Organization’s latest publication on antibiotic resistance.
Excerpts from D-G Chan’s March 14th, 2012 speech.
If current trends continue unabated, the future is easy to predict. Some experts say we are moving back to the pre-antibiotic era. No. This will be a post-antibiotic era. In terms of new replacement antibiotics, the pipeline is virtually dry, especially for gram-negative bacteria. The cupboard is nearly bare.
<SNIP>
A post-antibiotic era means, in effect, an end to modern medicine as we know it. Things as common as strep throat or a child’s scratched knee could once again kill.
The World Health Organization recently released a 120 page book that provides options and strategies for combating this global threat.
The evolving threat of antimicrobial resistance - Options for action
Authors:
World Health Organization
Publication details
Number of pages: 120
Publication date: 2012
Languages: English
ISBN: 978 92 4 1503181
