Resistant Form of Gonorrhea Gains Foothold
Boston Globe
Stephen Smith
March 10, 2004
In
Massachusetts, disease trackers have reported a strain of gonorrhea that cannot
be treated with standard antibiotics. First discovered in the state in 2002, the
drug-resistant bacteria affected one of every seven gonorrhea patients in the
state last year.
Maine reported its first case in January, and although other New England health
departments do not routinely test for the new strain, health officials suspect
its presence. Infectious disease specialists fear cases of drug-resistant
gonorrhea will spread exponentially as patients are unwittingly prescribed drugs
that do not work. Thinking they are cured, patients may resume unsafe sex
practices and pass on the infection.
Federal health officials are monitoring the spread of the drug-resistant
bacteria, first discovered on the West Coast about four years ago. CDC
investigators said the Massachusetts outbreak appears more severe than clusters
recently reported in Seattle, Las Vegas, Chicago, Dallas and Philadelphia.
CDC
investigators predict the new gonorrhea strain could increase HIV infections,
because people with gonorrhea's open sores can more easily contract and spread
HIV.
The resistant
gonorrhea strain is emerging as STDs have begun to rebound, and state funding
cuts have reduced the number of Massachusetts STD clinics. Gonorrhea cases had
declined slightly in Massachusetts over the past two years. However, the 3,010
diagnoses reported in 2003 represent a 45 percent increase since 1997, when
cases were at a historic low. Nationally, gonorrhea cases grew by 7 percent from
1997-2002.
Drug resistance has long been a problem with gonorrhea, and infectious disease doctors fear that eventually gonorrhea may become resistant to all the antibiotics available to treat it. "We're burning through antibiotics," said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, director of STD prevention and control services for the San Francisco Department of Public Health. "What happens when we burn through them all?" he asked.