Super gonorrhea can spread due to the abuse of antibiotics for Covid-19 coronavirus

You want 2021 to be great. But not in a super-gonorrhea mode.

“Super gonorrhea” is trending on Twitter right now, because why not? After all, it’s 2020. And what better way to have a trend at the end of a year that has brought us the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, a lack of practice, a constant White House drama and presidential elections that simply don’t will they end? Consider this sexually transmitted infection as the mode of pleasure, the night cap, the final erasure of 2020.

If you haven’t noticed yet, super gonorrhea isn’t great to have. It won’t make you say to your partner, “I just got back from the doctor’s office and I have great news for you.” No, telling her you have super gonorrhea would be as positive as telling her you have sexy syphilis or candy-covered chlamydia. Nor is super-gonorrhea a comic book hero, if you are wondering:

If it were shown in a movie, super gonorrhea would give The ghost rider a run for the worst comic book movie ever.

In contrast, super gonorrhea results when the bacteria that cause gonorrhea, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, develops a high level of resistance to antibiotics normally used to treat infection: azithromycin and ceftriaxone. As I reported in 2017 for Forbes, The World Health Organization (WHO) has listed such strains of N. GONORRHEA on the list of the most dangerous gems in the world. When making your cup list, don’t include anything in this WHO list of super bugs. “We’ve run out of ways to treat your infection,” it says, “no one can fly a plane,” or “the hull of the cruise ship you’re on is made of pickles” on the list of things you don’t want to hear.

Then in 2018, I covered for Forbes a case of a man from the United Kingdom (UK) who had a “super” sexual encounter while traveling in Southeast Asia. The man developed symptoms a month later and was diagnosed with super gonorrhea. As a result, the man’s regular partner in the UK had to be tested, but fortunately gave negative results to the superbug. It is not clear if this couple stayed together after the super revelation. After all, things like not knowing how to sneeze or getting infected with super gonorrhea can be a problem for some when it comes to dating. If the relationship continued, the woman would have had quite a few books to pick up in future arguments such as “why don’t you take out the trash? Well, do you remember that time when you had sex with someone else and you almost gave me super gonorrhea? ”

So why is the trend of super gonorrhea on Twitter when there are so many other things that can evolve? Well, there are different possibilities:

But it seems that the trends have resulted from the words of a WHO spokesperson Sun. that excessive use of azithromycin and lack of services to treat sexually transmitted infections (STIs) during the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic may fuel the increase in super gonorrhea. Not the Sun like that fireball in the sky that you shouldn’t even look at during an eclipse, but Sun. as in the UK publication.

Indeed, the use of azithromycin more often may be selected for more resistant versions N. gonorrhoeae. Remember earlier this year, when some supported the use of azithromycin in combination with hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19? And did some political leaders jump on this bandwagon? This was just before well-constructed and performed clinical trials to evaluate the safety and efficacy of such drugs for the treatment of severe infections with acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2). So this was an example of premature medication. Since then, clinical trials have not found enough evidence to support such use. In a comment in Lancet, Catherine E. Oldenburg, PhD, Assistant Professor and Thuy Doan, MD, PhD, Associate Professor at the University of California, San Francisco, (UCSF) concluded “for patients with Covid-19, the addition of azithromycin to the existing standard of care regimens do not appear to improve outcomes, “after reviewing the results of the COALITION II study that evaluated the addition of azithromycin to hydroxychloroquine and the standard of care to treat hospitalized patients with severe Covid-19.

As a result of subsequent scientific evidence, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Covid-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel now “recommends against the use of chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine with or without azithromycin for the treatment of Covid-19” in inpatients or outpatients.

For all those who could have said, “what’s wrong with continuing to use azithromycin to treat SARS-CoV2 infections,” here’s a great answer. The use of antibiotics in a non-discriminatory manner for infectious diseases, as if the drugs were Nutella, can encourage the development of resistant organisms. Antibiotics such as azithromycin are considered “broad spectrum” because they can kill or inactivate a wide range of different bacteria. It’s like using a bomb rather than a rifle. This can be useful when you do not know what is causing an infection or when there is no other option.

However, every time you use a broad-spectrum antibiotic, rather than a much more specific and specific treatment, you risk eliminating the friendlier bacteria and the weaker versions of a pathogen, such as N. gonorrhoeae, leaving the stronger and more resistant versions a wider field to flourish. The strongest remains multiply and become more predominant. This is how more resistant versions of bacteria take over and spread.

In the US, the five years from 2013 to 2018 saw a seven-fold increase in the percentage of N. gonorrhoeae samples that are less sensitive to azithromycin from 0.6% to 4.6%. Increased resistance to azithromycin in N. gonorrhoeae led to a December 18 change in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines for treating uncomplicated gonorrhea. Rather than a two-drug approach, azithromycin and ceftriaxone, the CDC now recommends only a 500 mg injection of ceftriaxone. By “uncomplicated”, CDC means gonorrhea infections that occur primarily in the urinary tract number one, rectum, genital area or throat. If you do not know how each of these places can be affected N. gonorrhoeae, it may be necessary to resume ed. Of course, more complicated gonorrhea may require antibiotics.

One problem with the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic is that other pathogens did not necessarily take a break. They didn’t spend most of their time on Zoom calls moving to each other and using video filters as they said, “hey, look at me, herpes with a hat.” While the social distancing of people could have limited the spread of pathogens, such as the flu, others could have had a good 2020.

After all, the pandemic not only caused doctors to try different antibiotics to treat Covid-19 coronavirus, but also reduced the availability of doctors for the correct treatment of STIs. The pandemic has shut down many “non-essential” health services or discouraged many patients from seeking appropriate medical care. Therefore, people may run away with untreated infections or try to treat themselves with potentially inappropriate antibiotics.

As I have repeatedly said, the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic has exposed many of the problems that already exist in society. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are one of them. If nothing is done to better address this approaching issue, pathogens such as super gonorrhea will be far from gone in 2021 and beyond.