The Super Gonorrhea Epidemic Is Now Out Of Control; All Hail Our New Lord, Super Gonorrhea

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We humans have always lived at the cruel whims of viral infections and plagues. No matter how much faith we put in the scientific method and our own darn gumption to eradicate diseases, they still wipe us out with regularity.

The Black Death, the most famous, eliminated 720% of the world’s population in the 14th century. The Spanish Influenza in 1918 infected 500 million people. Shit, tuberculosis still kills two million people a year.

It should be no surprise to hear that we are struggling to contain another outbreak. This one? Antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea. It’s coming for us all.

A study by the American Medical Association has found that super gonorrhea, already a concern to our readers, is becoming even more resistant to drugs

It now appears to be Terminator-esque.

Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacterium that causes the infection, is getting better and better at surviving the antibiotics we throw at it. Every time the bacteria in one person mutate enough to survive a course of treatment, it makes the overall disease that much more difficult to treat. More and more of the gonorrhea out there is caused by these resilient microbes.

It’s invincible-rrhea. Basically, the latest CDC guideline for treating the infection, which only recently had to be updated due to resistance from the bacteria, is again unable to fight it effectively.

In 2013, it seemed like things were getting better — perhaps because of the new recommendation, which paired ceftriaxone with a buddy to give the treatment a one-two punch. Resistance went back down to around 0.4 percent

From 2013 to 2014, the resistance doubled: The percentage of isolates with reduced susceptibility to the antibiotic rose back up to 0.8 percent.

Basically, the gonz knows what we are doing and can stop it.

Enjoy that untreatable infection. Soon we will all have it.

[Via The Washington Post]

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