The World Health Organization (WHO) hs said gonorrhea is becoming harder and in some cases impossible to treat with antibiotics.
“The bacteria that cause gonorrhea are particularly smart. Every time we use a new class of antibiotics to treat the infection, the bacteria evolve to resist them,” Teodora Wi, a human reproduction specialist at the WHO, said in a news release.
Three superbugs – bacteria that cannot be killed by the best available drug – were detected in Japan, France and Spain, according to the WHO.
“We need to be more vigilant now,” Wi told reporters in a phone briefing.
WHO states that about 78 million people worldwide are infected with gonorrhea.
“It’s important to understand that ever since antibiotics appeared on the scene, Neisseria gonorrhoeae has been fairly quick in developing resistance to all the classes of antibiotics that have been thrown at it,” Manica Balasegaram, director of the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership, told reporters.
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