Scientists find first superbug strain of gonorrhea

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cientists find first superbug strain of gonorrhea

By Kate Kelland | Reuters – 14 hrs ago

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have found a " superbug " strain of gonorrhea in

Japan that is resistant to all recommended antibiotics and say it could

transform a once easily treatable infection into a global public health threat.

The new strain of the sexually transmitted disease -- called H041 -- cannot be

killed by any currently recommended treatments for gonorrhea, leaving doctors

with no other option than to try medicines so far untested against the disease.

Magnus Unemo of the Swedish Reference Laboratory for Pathogenic Neisseria, who

discovered the strain with colleagues from Japan in samples from Kyoto,

described it as both " alarming " and " predictable. "

" Since antibiotics became the standard treatment for gonorrhea in the 1940s,

this bacterium has shown a remarkable capacity to develop resistance mechanisms

to all drugs introduced to control it, " he said.

In a telephone interview Unemo, who will present details of the finding at a

conference of the International Society for Sexually Transmitted Disease

Research (ISSTDR) in Quebec, Canada on Monday, said the fact that the strain had

been found first in Japan also followed an alarming pattern.

" Japan has historically been the place for the first emergence and subsequent

global spread of different types of resistance in gonorrhea, " he said.

The team's analysis of the strain found it was extremely resistant to all

cephalosporin-class antibiotics -- the last remaining drugs still effective in

treating gonorrhea.

Gonorrhea is a bacterial sexually transmitted infection and if left untreated

can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy and infertility in

women.

It is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases in the world and is

most prevalent in south and southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. In the United

States alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),

the number of cases is estimated at around 700,000 a year.

British scientists said last year that there was a real risk of gonorrhea

becoming a superbug -- a bacteria that has mutated and become resistant to

multiple classes of antibiotics -- after increasing reports of gonorrhea drug

resistance emerged in Hong Kong, China, Australia and other parts of Asia.

Experts say the best way to reduce the risk of even greater resistance

developing -- beyond the urgent need to develop effective new drugs -- is to

treat gonorrhea with combinations of two or more types of antibiotic at the same

time.

This technique is used in the treatment of some other diseases like tuberculosis

in an attempt to make it more difficult for the bacteria to learn how to conquer

the drugs.

Unemo said however that experience from previous degrees of resistance acquired

by gonorrhea suggested this new multi-drug resistant strain could spread around

the world within decades.

" Based on the historical data ... resistance has emerged and spread

internationally within 10 to 20 years, " he said.

Asked whether a class of drugs called carbapenems -- known as the most powerful

antibiotics yet devised -- might be a last ditch option for treating this new

gonorrhea strain, Unemo said there would first need to be trials to assess their

potential.

" Carbapenems have never been used for the treatment of gonorrhea so we cannot

interpret the data in any reliable or quality-assured way at the moment, " he

said.

The World Health Organization estimates there are at least 340 million new cases

of curable sexually transmitted infections -- including syphilis, gonorrhea,

chlamydia and trichomoniasis -- every year among people aged 15 to 49.

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