Experts have some bleak news for the more than 100 million people worldwide who contract gonorrhea each year: treatment options are dwindling.
The Centers for Disease Control this month issued a new set of guidelines warning that strands of the sexually-transmitted disease were resisting antibiotics once relied on for treatment. The CDC’s announcement came just two months after the World Health Organization voiced similar concerns.
“Unfortunately, there are more and more drug resistance in gonorrhea and so fewer of our currently available antibiotics are able to reliably eradicate it,” says Dr. Stephanie Teal, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at University of Colorado School of Medicine.