WHO issues Fresh Alert for Gonorrhea

June 7, 2012 By Anisha Francis, DC Chennai

Deccan Chronicle

The World Health Organisation on Wednesday issued a fresh alert on a drug resistant type of gonorrhoea, a common sexually transmitted disease, warning that a strain resistant to the very last line of antibiotic treatment had been found.

Doctors in Chennai, however, report that they have been receiving “superbug” gonorrhoea cases since the early 2000s, thanks to overzealous cephalosporin antibiotics prescriptions.

Gonorrhoea is a bacterial infection and initial symptoms include penile discharge and burning sensation in men, while 50 per cent of women do not have any significant symptoms.

Dr Manjula Lusti-Narsimhan of the WHO’s department of reproductive and sexual health announced that the organisation was drawing up a global action plan to combat the superbug, which could pose a public health challenge.

“Gonorrhoea used to be an easily manageable disease, but difficult-to-treat strains have now emerged. This is mainly because of the irrational use of antibiotics like Cephalexin by both patients and physicians.

General practitioners prescribe this drug for so many different ailments — diarrhoea, sore throat, respiratory and urinary infections — that the gonorrhoea bacteria has developed resistance,” explained Dr N. Kumarasamy, Chief Medical Officer at Y.R.G. Care here, which specialises in HIV and other STIs.

“If not treated, gonorrhoea can cause the urethra to constrict in both men and women. Infertility and pelvic inflammatory disease can also occur.

The infection can cause severe vision problems in infants born to infected mothers, as they can contract the bug as they pass through the birth canal,” he added.

At the Government General Hospital’s STI clinic, most patients with gonorrhoea are young, in the 20- 35 age group, said counsellor Mr Wilson.

“It is not sex workers or homosexual men from the ‘high risk groups’ who come here with gonorrhoea; they are well aware of how to protect themselves from STDs. It is the uninformed general public, mostly young men and often married couples who come for treatment,” he said.

Many patients, meanwhile, admit that they first try over-the-counter antibiotics “prescribed” by salesmen at the medical shop and visit the venerologist only when the symptoms get worse.