'Sex Superbug' In Hawaii Not Resistant To All Drugs, Despite Reports
The "sex superdrug" does not exist, despite reports last week from the Associated Press and other media outlets that a rare, untreatable strain of gonorrhea had been discovered on the islands of Hawaii, reports NBC News. But the gonorrhea discovered was actually a different strain, which is resistant to a different drug.
On Tuesday last week, it was reported by Yahoo and others that a rare strain of gonorrhea, HO41, had been detected in gonorrhea had been detected in Hawaii. The reason it raised alarm nationwide, is it was the first strain of the STD found to be resistant to ceftriaxone, an injectable antibiotic that is the last-resort treatment for the sexually transmitted infection.
The Hawaii cases that were first discovered way back in May 2011, was actually H11S8, which is resistant to another drug: Azithromycin. That strain of gonorrhea has been a known problem within the medical community for a while.
The famed, and rare, "sex superdrug," HO41, hasn't been found anywhere in the world since 2009, when it was discovered in a Japanese sex worker. But the H11S8 is a known commodity resistant to the generic antibiotic azithromycin, and not the last resort ceftriaxone injection like the HO41.
The discovery of the error has put public officials in the untenable position of refuting the claims by the AP and others despite their concern about untreatable STD's like gonorrhea becoming a reality.
Dr. Kimberly Workowski, a professor of infectious disease at Emory University told NBC News, ""The sky is not falling -- yet."
Workowski said the H11S8 strain found in Hawaii has been a known strain for a while, despite the panic in the U.S. and abroad about the other, rare form of the mutation, HO41.
Despite the confusion, the threat of an untreatable gonorrhea strain in the United States is a very real concern.
William Smith, executive director of National Coalition of STD Directors says, "We think that that could be just a matter of a year or two," so it's a very real problem that will surface, even if it hasn't yet.
Despite only 322,000 reported cases of gonorrhea in the United States in 2011, because the infection often shows no signs, that figure is likely closer to 700,000, says the CDC.
But the gonorrhea infection easily mutates, and after being easily treatable with just one antibiotic, the germ has started to become resistant to all but the cephalosporins, the current last line of defense against the infection.
Just last year, the CDC stopped recommending the oral antibiotic, cefixime, because surveillance of the drug had shown it was on the verge of a resistance. Now, the recommended treatment is ceftriaxone along with two other antibiotics, azithromycin or doxycycline.
Says Workowski, "the point was to actually preserve the last remaining drug we know is effective," and Smith added, "Untreated gonorrhea is a disaster for public health and HIV prevention," so make sure you practice safe sex like prophylactics.
