Experts say oral sex increases spread of gonorrhoea

World Health Organisation (WHO) is calling on countries to monitor the spread of resistant gonorrhoea and invest in new drugs, as it is becoming harder to treat due to antibiotic resistance.
WHO issued the warning June 7, 2017, saying the bacteria causing the sexually transmitted infection (STI) were increasingly evolving species that resist treatment through antibiotics.
The global health body therefore called for the development of new antibiotics to fight the ‘superbug.’
Lanre Yusuf, a Lagos-based medical practitioner, says gonorrhoea is not on the rise in Nigeria, but that the STI is rapidly resistance to antibiotics as it is becoming harder to treat and even almost impossible in some cases.
“This is happening because of the rise in oral sex and multiple sex partnering,” says Yusuf, as “oral sex could be lowered and the spread of infection by using a condom, people have to be very careful and have protected sex.”
A release on the website of WHO that analysed data from 77 countries, shows gonorrhoea’s resistance to antibiotics has a global spread, noting about 78 million people pick up the STI each year, and it can cause infertility.
Teodora Wi, medical officer in charge of Human Reproduction at WHO, says propelling gonorrhoea bacteria into this environment through oral sex can lead to super-gonorrhoea, saying, “It is a very smart bug, every time you introduce a new class of antibiotics to treat gonorrhoea, the bug becomes resistant.”
She cited three countries – Japan, France and Spain – where the infection proved to be completely untreatable, and “disturbingly, the huge majority of gonorrhoea infections are in poor countries where resistance is harder to detect.
“These cases may just be the tip of the iceberg.”
Marc Sprenger, director of Antimicrobial Resistance at WHO, says, “To control gonorrhoea, we need new tools and systems for better prevention, treatment, earlier diagnosis, and more complete tracking and reporting of new infections, antibiotic use, resistance and treatment failures.
“Specifically, we need new antibiotics, as well as rapid, accurate, point-of-care diagnostic tests – ideally, ones that can predict which antibiotics will work on that particular infection – and longer term, a vaccine to prevent gonorrhoea.”
“Any new treatment developed should be accessible to everyone who needs it, while ensuring it is used appropriately, so that drug resistance is slowed as much as possible,” adds Manica Balasegaram, director, Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP).
Gonorrhoea can be prevented through safer sexual behaviour, in particular consistent and correct condom use.
Information, education and communication can promote and enable safer sex practices, improve people’s ability to recognise the symptoms of gonorrhoea and other sexually transmitted infections, and increase the likelihood they will seek care.
Today, lack of public awareness, lack of training of health workers, and stigma around sexually transmitted infections remain barriers to greater and more effective use of these interventions.

Anthonia Obokoh