The spectre of untreatable gonorrhea

Dr Jason Ong, Melbourne Sexual Health Centre based researcher, has put together an open access Special Issue, sponsored by the World Health Organisation. The issue was launched at the 23-26 October conference of the International Union of STI - Asia-Pacific in Shanghai. 

This Special Issue of Sexual Health aims to collate the latest evidence base focussed on understanding the current epidemic and transmission of gonorrhoea, choice of treatment, molecular epidemiology application, concerns about antimicrobial resistance and alternative prevention and control for gonorrhoea.

Dr Ong writes in his editorial's introductory paragraph:

"Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG), a sexually transmissible infection (STI), remains a major global public health concern, estimated to have caused 87 million infections among people aged 14–49 years in 2016 worldwide,1 with rising rates particularly among men who have sex with men (MSM). Since the advent of effective antibiotic use in the 1930s, this pathogen has acquired resistance to most antibiotic classes used against it, and with the threat of increasingly resistant NG and dwindling treatment options, we are facing the very real possibility of untreatable NG. [italics added]"

He goes on to outline the issues and possible actions to prevent the worst outcomes in the issue.