Will " Super Gonorrhea " Become the Next Herpes?

Check it out

http://www.medicaldaily.com/antibiotic-resistance-superbugs-gonorrhea-treatment-383072

According to the BBC, doctors have expressed “huge concern” that a strain of drug-resistant gonorrhea has been spreading across the United Kingdom. The strain prompted a national alert when it popped up last year in Leeds, and now there is increased risk the disease could become untreatable.

Super-gonorrhea started by affecting straight couples, but doctors are seeing it in gay men too. Public Health England stated that attempts to contain the outbreak in West Midlands, London, and southern England have had only “limited success.”

Two drugs, azithromycin and ceftriaxone, are used in combination to cure gonorrhea, but now that resistance to azithromycin is spreading, doctors fear ceftriaxone will soon become ineffective as well. Gonorrhea, which is transmitted through vaginal, oral, and anal sex, can lead to infertility if left untreated, and can even be passed on to a child during pregnancy. The infection can easily go unnoticed — when infected, more than 75 percent of women and gay men have no easily recognizable symptoms, as do one in 10 heterosexual men. Experts say the biggest issue with super-gonorrhea passing to gay men is the rate of transfer.

“We’ve been worried it would spread to men who have sex with men,” Peter Greenhouse, a Bristol consultant in sexual health, told BBC. “The problem is [they] tend to spread infections a lot faster simply as they change partners more quickly.”

In addition, men who have sex with men are more likely to develop the infection in their throats, where there is other bacteria that can share resistance to drugs, and where antibiotics reach in lower doses.

The national radio station aimed at younger listeners put out a peak-time report about this, and the need to protect against orally transmitted stds, including herpes. Think the first cases have been in Leeds, which has also just become the first city to open a legal red-light district.

I wish the medical community would stop writing about STDs in the manner that they do. It's almost as if they must word it in a way to make the carriers seem more dirty, if that makes sense. "Changing partners more quickly" is really an assumption and does not mean all male couples are sticking it to multiple men weekly. How about anal sex causes more fissures/tears due to the fact the tissue is fragile and anyone (M or F) that does it frequently is at more of a risk if they do not know their partners status.

Starting my 3 course advanced microbiology classes this summer. Browsed through the book yesterday hoping to get some new information on HSV- I got as far as HSV2 and it being mostly found in "promiscuous woman" before I gave up. (Not a direct quote but promiscuous was used!)

Sorry, had to vent lol. Aren't we all over the sex is dirty and must be saved for marriage mindset yet? Because looking at it naturally would lead me to assume we could discuss some of the downsides without the puritanical attitudes. Just my two, three, and four cents :)

@MMissouri - That's so disappointing to hear. I recently read a statistic that roughly 20% of women with 2-4 lifetime partners are HSV2+. While number of partners increases the odds of contracting HSV, it is very common even among women with few partners. Likelihood of contracting the virus also increases with age, regardless of number of partners, because more potential partners are positive as they age.

@optimist- it is very disappointing to read as well. This is special, advanced, and advanced clinical microbiology. It would not get any more detailed unless I enrolled for a masters in virology. Somehow, I don't think the opinions within the course material would change regardless.

At least the pictures were posted next to chancroid and syphilis. Next to those I have to admit H looked very minor. Lol.