News Express Desk: Oral sex is producing dangerous
gonorrhoea and a decline in condom use is helping it to spread, the World
Health Organization has said.
It warns that if someone contracts gonorrhoea, it is
now much harder to treat, and in some cases impossible.
The sexually transmitted infection is rapidly
developing resistance to antibiotics.
Experts said the situation was "fairly grim"
with few new drugs on the horizon.
About 78 million people pick up the STI each year and
it can cause infertility.
The World Health Organization analysed data from 77
countries which showed gonorrhoea's resistance to antibiotics was widespread.
Dr Teodora Wi, from the WHO, said there had even been
three cases - in Japan, France and Spain - where the infection was completely
untreatable.
She said: "Gonorrhoea is a very smart bug, every
time you introduce a new class of antibiotics to treat gonorrhoea, the bug
becomes resistant."
Worryingly, the vast majority of gonorrhoea infections
are in poor countries where resistance is harder to detect.
"These cases may just be the tip of the
iceberg," she added.
Throat infection
Gonorrhoea can infect the genitals, rectum and throat,
but it is the last that is most concerning health officials.
Dr Wi said antibiotics could lead to bacteria in the
back of the throat, including relatives of gonorrhoea, developing resistance.
She said: "When you use antibiotics to treat
infections like a normal sore throat, this mixes with the Neisseria species
in your throat and this results in resistance."
Thrusting gonorrhoea bacteria into this environment
through oral sex can lead to super-gonorrhoea.
"In the US, resistance [to an antibiotic] came
from men having sex with men because of pharyngeal infection," she added.
A decline in condom use, which had soared because of
fears of HIV/Aids, is thought to help the infection spread.
What is gonorrhoea?
The disease is caused by the bacterium called Neisseria
gonorrhoea.
The infection is spread by unprotected vaginal, oral
and anal sex.
Symptoms can include a thick green or yellow discharge
from sexual organs, pain when urinating and bleeding between periods.
However, of those infected, about one in 10
heterosexual men and more than three-quarters of women, and gay men, have no
easily recognisable symptoms.
Untreated infection can lead to infertility, pelvic
inflammatory disease and can be passed on to a child during pregnancy.
The World Health Organization is calling on countries
to monitor the spread of resistant gonorrhoea and to invest in new drugs.
Dr Manica Balasegaram, from the Global Antibiotic
Research and Development Partnership, said: "The situation is fairly grim.
"There are only three drug candidates in the
entire drug [development] pipeline and no guarantee any will make it out."
But ultimately, the WHO said vaccines would be needed
to stop gonorrhoea.
Prof Richard Stabler, from the London School of
Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: "Ever since the introduction of
penicillin, hailed as a reliable and quick cure, gonorrhoea has developed resistance
to all therapeutic antibiotics.
"In the past 15 years therapy has had to change
three times following increasing rates of resistance worldwide. We are now at a point where we are using the
drugs of last resort, but there are worrying signs as treatment failure due to
resistant strains has been documented."
It's hard to say if more people around the world are
having more oral sex than they used to, as there isn't much reliable global
data available.
Data from the UK and US show it's very common, and has
been for years, including among teenagers.
The UK's first National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and
Lifestyles, carried out in 1990-1991, found 69.7% of men and 65.6% of women had
given oral sex to, or received it from, a partner of the opposite sex in the
previous year.
By the time of the second survey during 1999-2001,
this had increased to 77.9% for men and 76.8% for women, but hasn't changed
much since.
A national survey in the US, meanwhile, has found
about two-thirds of 15-24 year olds have ever had oral sex.
Dr Mark Lawton from the British Association for Sexual
Health and HIV said people with gonorrhoea in the throat would be unlikely to
realise it and thus be more likely to pass it on via oral sex.
He recognises that while condoms would reduce the risk
of transmission, many people wouldn't want to use them.
"My message would be to get tested so at least if
you've got it you know about it," Dr Lawton said.
Source: BBC
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