Gonorrhea superbug spreads in Japan

[n2doc]

Scientists have found a drug-resistant strain of gonorrhea in Japan they say could transform a once easily treatable infection into a global public health threat, Reuters is reporting:

The new strain of the sexually transmitted disease — called H041 — cannot be killed by any currently recommended treatments for gonorrhea, leaving doctors with no other option than to try medicines so far untested against the disease.
Magnus Unemo of the Swedish Reference Laboratory for Pathogenic Neisseria, who discovered the strain with colleagues from Japan in samples from Kyoto, described it as both “alarming” and “predictable.”
“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,” he said.

Unemo will present findings at a conference of the International Society for Sexually Transmitted Disease Research in Quebec on Monday.
Author Maryn McKenna writes at Wired.com that the superbug strain of gonorrhea could be filed under the Department of Unintended Consequences: It’s the cheap rapid STD tests that are ultimately to blame, she says

more

http://blog.sfgate.com/hottopics/2012/05/18/gonorrhea-superbug-spreads-in-japan/?tsp=1

[xchrom]

1. Du rec. Nt

[wandy]

2. One of the up sides of getting older is .........

You really don't have to worry about stuff like that.
One of the down sides of getting older is.......
You really don't have to worry about stuff like that.
Ho Hum,

[DCKit]

3. On both counts, you nailed it. nt

[NickB79]

4. You'd be surprised. STD rates have doubled in the past decade for those 50-90 yr old

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-57371893-10391704/sexually-transmitted-disease-rates-rise-among-elderly-why/

According to the editorial, an estimated 80 percent of 50- to 90-year-olds are sexually active. This activity has contributed to rises in cases of syphilis, chlamydia, and gonorrhea among 45- to 64-year-olds in the U.S. and the U.K.

According to CDC estimates, there were almost 900 cases of syphilis in 45 to 64-year-olds in 2000, and in 2010, the number grew to more than 2,500. In the elderly age group, 6,700 people were diagnosed with chlamydia in 2000; by 2010? 19,000. The number of new HIV diagnoses in people over 50 has also doubled between 2000 and 2009, according to the editorial's authors.