WHO releases action plan for antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea

Gonorrhea infects 106 million people worldwide each year, the agency reported.  Untreated, it can cause complications such as infertility, infections, stillbirths and increased susceptibility to HIV infection. Babies born to mothers with gonorrhea have a 30% to 50% chance of developing eye infections, and potentially blindness.

In a statement released Wednesday, WHO scientist Manjula Lusti-Narasimhan said that gonorrhea was “becoming a major public health challenge.” The Associated Press noted it was likely that many cases of treatment-resistant gonorrhea in less-developed nations had gone undetected, since the countries where the bug has been detected thus far are all places with sophisticated public health systems.

“The available data only shows the tip of the iceberg. Without adequate surveillance we won’t know the extent of resistance to gonorrhea,” Lusti-Narasimhan said in the WHO statement.

The WHO’s global action plan to control the spread and effect of antimicrobial resistance in N. gonorrhoeae is available here.