Gonococcal resistance to antibacterial drugs increases

About 3 million cases of gonorrhea are reported each year in the United States. American researchers are seriously concerned about the increase in multiresistance of gonococci and, if they were previously used to treat penicillin and tetracycline, since the 80s. Most gonococci have acquired resistance to these antibiotics. According to data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), gonococci resistant to azithromycin, the drug most commonly used to treat gonorrhea in the United States, are already known.

Since 1989, two antibiotics from the fluoroquinolone group, ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin, have been recommended for the treatment of gonorrhea. these are fairly inexpensive drugs and can be taken only once. Since 1997, strains of fluoroquinolone-resistant gonococci have started to appear in Asia and on some islands in the eastern Pacific region. Thus, in 1998 in Asian countries, 10 to 63% of N.gonorrhoeae strains were resistant to ciprofloxacin, in the United States, only 0.1% of strains resistant to ciprofloxcine (CipR) have been released.

In 1997, in Hawaii, 1.4% of gonococcal strains were resistant to fluoroquinolones, in 1999 - 9.5%, while in the Philippines, more than 70% of gonococci were not sensitive to fluoroquinolones. Therefore, the CDC recommends finding out from gonorrhea patients whether they or their sexual partners may have been infected in Hawaii, some islands in the East Pacific region, and Asia, and if positive, use cefixime or ceftriaxone - drugs for which the emergence of resistant strains in the United States is not noted..