{"id":334606,"date":"2017-07-07T07:42:04","date_gmt":"2017-07-07T07:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=334606"},"modified":"2017-07-07T07:42:04","modified_gmt":"2017-07-07T07:42:04","slug":"oral-sex-producing-unstoppable-bacteria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/07\/oral-sex-producing-unstoppable-bacteria\/","title":{"rendered":"Oral sex producing unstoppable bacteria"},"content":{"rendered":"
Oral sex is producing dangerous gonorrhoea and a decline in condom use is helping it to spread, the World Health Organization has said.<\/p>\n
It warns that if someone contracts gonorrhoea, it is now much harder to treat, and in some cases impossible.<\/p>\n
The sexually transmitted infection is rapidly developing resistance to antibiotics.<\/p>\n
Experts said the situation was “fairly grim” with few new drugs on the horizon.<\/p>\n
Around 78 million people pick up the STI each year and it can cause infertility.<\/p>\n
The World Health Organization analysed data from 77 countries which showed gonorrhoea’s resistance to antibiotics was widespread.<\/p>\n
Dr Teodora Wi, from the WHO, said there had even been three cases – in Japan, France and Spain – where the infection was completely untreatable.<\/p>\n
She said: “Gonorrhoea is a very smart bug, every time you introduce a new class of antibiotics to treat gonorrhoea, the bug becomes resistant.”<\/p>\n
Worryingly, the vast majority of gonorrhoea infections are in poor countries where resistance is harder to detect.<\/p>\n
“These cases may just be the tip of the iceberg,” she added.<\/p>\n
Oral sex<\/strong><\/p>\n Gonorrhoea can infect the genitals, rectum and throat, but it is the last that is most concerning health officials.<\/p>\n Dr Wi said antibiotics could lead to bacteria in the back of the throat, including relatives of gonorrhoea, developing resistance.<\/p>\n She said: “When you use antibiotics to treat infections like a normal sore throat, this mixes with the\u00a0Neisseria\u00a0<\/i>species in your throat and this results in resistance.”<\/p>\n Thrusting gonorrhoea bacteria into this environment through oral sex can lead to super-gonorrhoea.<\/p>\n “In the US, resistance [to an antibiotic] came from men having sex with men because of pharyngeal infection,” she added.<\/p>\n A decline in condom use, which had soared because of fears of HIV\/Aids, is thought to help the infection spread.<\/p>\n What is gonorrhoea?<\/strong><\/p>\n