Sexually transmitted diseases, or STDs, are not things that most people like to talk about, which is partially the reason that they are becoming increasingly common. The stigma surrounding these diseases/infections have resulted in decreased awareness and discourages people from asking their partners about their sexual health, which ultimately facilitates their spread. One particular STD is listed as an “urgent threat” by the CDC due to increased antibiotic resistance: Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Just as the superbugs that I discussed in last week’s blog post, N. gonorrhoeae has developed resistance to almost all antibiotics that we have for treating the infection. Just by looking at the chart below (Nature, p. 3), you can see how relatively short-lived new treatments for this bacterial infection are, and why it is becoming a huge threat in terms of public health. With such increasing resistance, the best way to combat this bacteria is to prevent it, and there are several ways to do this and I will discuss a few in this blog post.
Antibiotic resistance is absolutely crazy. Thinking that the source of some of these superbugs are small, random mutations just blows my mind. You don’t usually think of bacteria in terms of natural selection, but it is important to remember when we talk about these microbes, which evolve in response to selective pressures. These small mutations lead to changes that ultimately decrease the effectiveness of antibiotics, thus resulting in resistance. Changes that lead to decreased influx of antibiotics, increasing efflux of antibiotics, decreased affinity of antibiotics to their target on the microbe, and several other changes are why N. gonorrhoeae has been growing resistance since the 1940s, when Penicillin was introduced. In fact, by the 1950s, most strains of N. gonorrhoeae had developed resistance to standard doses of Penicillin G, and by the early 1970s, Penicillin G, even at increased doses was no longer a viable option for most strains of the bacteria (Nature, p. 3). Most concerning is that in 2018, strains were isolated in the UK and Australia that showed resistance to the dual treatment consisting of ceftriaxone and high-level azithromycin (Nature, p. 4), leaving us with an alarmingly small arsenal to combat this STD.
The reason that this is such a concern is because N. gonorrhoeae can spread beyond just the reproductive organs to the liver, heart, joints, and can lead to complications with pregnancy and infertility. From 2018 to 2019, the number of reported gonorrhea cases in the US increased by 5 percent to 580,000, which is the highest number in over 30 years (Stack, n.p.). If you look at the rate in 2014, gonorrhea has increased by over 63 percent since then (Stack, n.p.). This increase goes back to several things, which include increasing stigma around STDs, decreased use in condoms, and, to an extent, decreasing resources and health centers for sexual health. There are three things that everyone as individuals can do to prevent catching & spreading this STD: abstinence, monogamy, and condoms (AMC). All three of these methods can protect you and others from N. gonorrhoeae. Adding other preventative measures to this AMC method confers even more protection. Some other things you can do is regular STD screening, communicating with your sexual partners, and making changes to your behavioral/sexual tendencies that may be putting you at risk (Nature, 13). Basically, what I want you to take away from this post is that gonorrhea is scary and getting scarier, so you should do everything you can to protect yourself and others.
Jaylin’s Thoughts: Microbiology 