LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Since 1987 the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has offered patients the promise of cutting edge medicine, regardless of ability to pay. While AHF providers have been quick to adapt the latest treatment protocols for Gonorrhea, (which shifted in 2007 in the US and were updated again in 2015) AHF Chief of Medicine Dr. Michael Wohlfeiler is deeply concerned about how uninformed doctors worldwide may be contributing to the spread of a drug-resistant—and potentially untreatable— Gonorrhea superbug.
In 2005, UK guidelines for treatment changed from oral Ciprofloxacin to injected Rocephin (Ceftriaxone) because an increasing percentage of gonorrhea was found to be resistant to Ciprofloxacin. Despite these findings, one in five cases of Gonorrhea in the UK are still being treated with the outdated Ciprofloxacin. Though a 2013 CDC report suggests that Ciprofloxacin was now virtually unused in the U.S., a national public health alert was triggered in September due to an outbreak of highly drug-resistant gonorrhea in the north of England, illustrating the very real, global consequences of disregarding these updated standards.
“While Gonorrhea is still regarded as almost universally susceptible to ceftriaxone, in 2011 a newly discovered H041 strain of N. gonorrhoeae, originally isolated from a commercial sex worker in Japan was shown to be resistant to that antibiotic, so resistance to that antibiotic could be in our future,” explains AHF’s Chief of Medicine Dr. Wohlfeiler. “In addition, the CDC has found that the concentration of ceftriaxone needed to kill the bacteria has increased over time, and that is indicative that Gonorrhea is becoming more resistant to Ceftriaxone. In June 2015, the CDC stated that when treating Gonorrhea, ceftriaxone should always be given in combination with oral Azithromycin, even if the patient has tested positive for Gonorrhea and negative for chlamydia.”
In October 2015, the CDC put out the following statement: “Gonorrhea has progressively developed resistance to the antibiotic drugs prescribed to treat it. Following the spread of gonococcal fluoroquinolone resistance, the cephalosporin antibiotics have been the foundation of recommended treatment for gonorrhea. The emergence of cephalosporin-resistant gonorrhea would significantly complicate the ability of providers to treat gonorrhea successfully, since we have few antibiotic options left that are simple, well-studied, well-tolerated and highly effective. It is critical to continuously monitor antibiotic resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae and encourage research and development of new treatment regimens.”
“We are exploring the possibility of a re-testing protocol to see if our patients treated for Gonorrhea have successfully eradicated the infection. We must determine whether we are seeing treatment failures that would be indicative of an epidemic of antibiotic resistance,” said AHF Chief of Medicine Dr. Wohlfeiler.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 588,000 individuals in 35 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare
