Antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea discovered in Japan

Resistant gonorrhea bacteria disturb the professional world

12.07.2011

In Japan, an antibiotic resistant gonorrhea germ occurred. The life-threatening venereal disease could thus experience a worldwide renaissance in the future, which doctors would have nothing to oppose, warn Swedish and Japanese researchers at a conference of the International Society for Sexually Transmitted Diseases Research (ISSTDR) in Quebec City, Canada.

Magnus Unemo from the Swedish Reference Laboratory for Pathogenic Neisseria and Makoto Ohnishi from the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo have reported on a new variant of the gonococcus (Neisseria gonorrhoeae), which is said to have developed resistance to all common antibiotics. Thus, the venereal disease gonorrhea (gonorrhea) threaten to become a worldwide problem to which the medical profession would have nothing to oppose with their conventional treatment methods. The new genus called HO41 was discovered in Japan, but could spread over the globe in the next ten to 20 years, the researchers warn.

Development of resistance in the gonorrhea germs
According to the international research group led by Magnus Unemo and Makoto Ohnishi, the gonococcal HO41 gonococci discovered in Japan are already resistant to normal broadband antibiotics. This threatens a worldwide renaissance of the antibiotics age often fatal gonorrhea, warn the experts. Because only with the use of antibiotics was the venereal disease a relatively harmless, easily treated infection. „Since the 1940s, antibiotics have been used in standard gonorrhea therapy“, explained Magnus Unemo at the congress in Quebec. The experts therefore rated that the now discovered gonorrhea is resistant to all antibiotics used in gonorrhea „alarming“ Development. But this was also predictable, as the gonorrhea bacteria in regular contact with various antibiotics „Form defense mechanisms against all these drugs“, the researchers reported. Already in the run-up to the congress, the international research group led by Magnus Unemo and Makoto Ohnishi had been published in the journal „Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy“ published a study describing the newly discovered gonorrhea variant. As part of their research, the researchers were also able to identify the gene mutations responsible for the antibiotic resistance of the new Neisseria gonorrhoeae bacteria.

Japan as the country of origin of resistant gonorrhea germs
The fact that the new antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea bacteria were discovered in Japan, according to Magnus Unemo, is particularly worrying „Japan is often the country of origin for various resistance types of gonorrhea germs“ was. These have then spread frequently from Japan worldwide, said Unemo. Something similar, according to the experts, is also ahead with the newly discovered gonorrhea. Because the bacteria are resistant to the broad-spectrum antibiotics still remaining for gonorrhea treatment, physicians would be more or less helpless to worldwide spread and, in case of doubt, would have to resort to previously untested gonorrhea treatments. However, there is still some time left for scientists to find an answer to the spread of the resistant pathogens, as the experts estimate that it will take ten to 20 years for the new germs to spread across the globe.

Gonorrhea is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases worldwide
Nevertheless, the risk of the new antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea is not to be underestimated. Because gonorrhea is already one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) has come to the conclusion that about 60 million people are infected with the sexually transmitted disease each year. At the same time, gonorrhea is by no means defeated even in modern industrialized countries. For example, the American Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that in the US, an average of around 700,000 people fall ill with gonorrhea per year. The bacteria are usually transmitted by sexual intercourse, the bacteria then settle in the man on the mucous membranes of the urethra and in women on the mucous membranes of the cervix. The immune system reacts by killing the infected mucosal cells, which can cause serious damage to the mucous membranes. Typical symptoms of gonorrhea include urinary pain, genital itching and red or swollen skin around the urethra, as well as a purulent discharge. If no medical treatment threatens a further spread of the bacteria in the organism thereby massive health complaints can be caused. Therefore, the discovery of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea is in the opinion of the experts particularly alarming. Because a promising drug treatment is excluded in these gonorrhea germs so far. (Fp)

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Martin Gapa