

Smart bacteria causing gonorrhoea is hard or impossible to treat

gonorrhoeaWorld Health Organization (WHO) announced a bacteria that cause gonorrhoea, which is a common sexually-transmitted infection, is much harder, and sometimes impossible, to treat. Dr Teodora Wi, Medical Officer, Human Reproduction, at WHO said that these bacteria are particularly smart. Every time we use a new class of antibiotics to treat the infection, the bacteria evolve to resist them.





Currently, in most countries, extended-spectrum cephalosporins (ESCs) are the only single antibiotic that remain effective for treating gonorrhoea. WHO issued updated global treatment recommendations in 2016 advising doctors to give 2 antibiotics: ceftriaxone and azithromycin.

Gonorrhoea prevention

Gonorrhoea can be prevented through safer sexual behaviour, in particular consistent and correct condom use. Information, education, and communication can promote and enable safer sex practices, improve people’s ability to recognize the symptoms of gonorrhoea and other sexually transmitted infections, and increase the likelihood they will seek care.

The bacteria can infect the cervix (entrance to the womb), the urethra (tube through which urine passes out of the body), the rectum, and less commonly the throat or eyes.

The infection can also be passed from a pregnant woman to her baby. If you're pregnant and may have gonorrhoea, it's important to get tested and treated before your baby is born. Without treatment, gonorrhoea can cause permanent blindness in a newborn baby.


Gonorrhoea isn't spread by kissing, hugging, sharing baths or towels, swimming pools, toilet seats, or sharing cups, plates and cutlery, because the bacteria can't survive outside the human body for long.


According to NHS UK, typical symptoms of gonorrhoea include a thick green or yellow discharge from the vagina or penis, pain when urinating and (in women) bleeding between periods. However, around 1 in 10 infected men and almost half of infected women don't experience any symptoms.


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