Antibiotic-Resistant Gonorrhea Found

A new gonorrhea “super-bug” resistant to available treatments has been discovered in Japan, reports ABC News.

The new strain of bacteria, known as ‘Neisseria gonnorhoeae’ has genetically mutated to escape from cephalosporins; the only antibiotic treatment available to treat the infection.

“This is both an alarming and a predictable discovery,” lead researched Magnus Unemo said in a statement.

“Since antibiotics became the standard treatment for gonorrhea in the 1940s, this bacterium has shown a remarkable capacity to develop resistance mechanisms to all drugs introduced to control it.

Unemo announced the finding at a meeting for the International Society for Sexually Transmitted Disease Research in Quebec City, Canada. The discovery could move gonorrhea from a treatable STD to an international health threat.

“While it is still too early to assess if this new strain has become widespread, the history of newly emergent resistance in the bacterium suggests that it may spread rapidly unless new drugs and effective treatment programs are developed,” Unemo said in his statement.