This story actually broke earlier in the week, so if you haven’t thrown out your 2020 bingo cards yet and you had “super gonorrhea,” break out your daubing pen because this is your lucky day. The World Health Organization is warning the public that certain measures taken to combat the COVID pandemic may already be resulting in mutations of some sexually transmitted diseases that are highly resistant to antibiotics. This is of particular concern in the case of gonorrhea because there have been significant surges in new cases around the world in the past couple of years, particularly in parts of Africa. But the United States has been seeing similar increases in new infections. The reason for the concern is that the medical community was using high doses of antibiotics to fight COVID and this can lead to more impervious strains of STDs. (Daily Wire)
The measures taken to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 might be contributing to the spread of a new, antibiotic-resistant strain of gonorrhea.
The overuse of antibiotics during the pandemic might render the sexually-transmitted infection (STI) more resistant to them, according to World Health Organization (WHO) medics who spoke to The Sun.
Gonorrhea, one of the world’s oldest STIs, infects more than 90 million people each year worldwide, and the rate is increasing by 17%.
Untreated, gonorrhea can lead to an exponential increase of HIV transmission, as well as eye infections that can cause blindness.
The rise in new cases of gonorrhea is far beyond some temporary glitch in the figures. The WHO reports that new cases have risen by 63% in Africa over the past five years. It’s estimated that there are as many as five million new cases in the United States at the moment, many of which go undiagnosed.
Compounding the problem is the fact that the lockdowns have been keeping many people from going for regular checkups and avoiding their doctors’ offices for anything except symptoms of COVID. Gonorrhea can fester for a long time with few or no symptoms. When mistaken for something else, some patients have looked to over-the-counter remedies rather than going to be tested.
The WHO reports that azithromycin, a common antibiotic used for respiratory infections, was widely administered in the United States to help patients fight off the effects of COVID. But while that may have frequently been an effective treatment, it also left patients with undiagnosed cases of gonorrhea in a position where the disease was able to mutate into one of these more resistant forms.
Kevin Cox, who is the executive chairman of U.K. start-up Biotaspheric Limited, warned The Sun about the potential of the new gonorrhea strain becoming untreatable. “People infected with super gonorrhea will infect others and accelerate anti-microbial resistance,” he said. “We urgently need new treatments.”
As the report notes, gonorrhea is one of the most ancient STDs known to man. Historical records reveal descriptions of the disease dating back to 2,600 BC in Chinese medical textbooks. And if you’re squeamish about going in for an injection to treat it, consider what “cures” the Chinese were prescribing back then. They include “injecting mercury, silver and even gold directly into the urethra.”
Most of the guys in the audience should probably take a few minutes to uncross their legs before moving on to the next article. Pleasant screams.
