Drug-resistant gonorrhea is cause for alarm

Experts also warn other diseases like tuberculosis are now fighting treatment posing a health threat

By Rushdie Oudia

Cases of gonorrhea disease resisting drugs are now on the increase, the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) has warned.

Revised guidelines in a report prepared by Kemri’s Centre for Disease Control (CDC) indicate that the most effective treatment for gonorrhea is now a combination therapy of the injectable antibiotic along with one of two other oral antibiotics.

Kemri Director Dr John Vulule also said apart from gonorrhea, there was a trend of other diseases being resistant to drugs, adding this was a cause for worry. He said the resistance was a setback in fighting various life threatening diseases like coughs and tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis, which is being treated with four drugs, had become resistant to two of the most important drugs. The doctor said the concern was not only in Kenya but even internationally, adding that scientists were working round the clock to ensure a solution is found.

According to the new recommendations by CDC, patients who have persistent symptoms of the venereal disease should be retested with a culture-based gonorrhea test, which can identify antibiotic-resistant infections. The patient should return one week after retreatment for another culture test, dubbed a test-of-cure, to ensure the infection is fully cured.

Precaution

Individuals are now advised to take steps to protect themselves from infection with abstinence as the surest way to prevent infection.

For those who are sexually active, consistent and correct condom use and limiting the number of sex partners are effective strategies for reducing the risk of infection. Meanwhile, malaria prevalence has reduced to 40 per cent, owing to the use of bed nets. Vulule said nets protect pregnant mothers and infants from mosquitoes, which spread the disease.

“Malaria has gone to a level where it can be eliminated,” said Vulule, adding that research was gaining ground and every avenue was being used to fight the disease.

Speaking at the Kemri/CDC Dissemination Conference Agenda in Kisumu, Vulule said scientists’ main aim was to find the best vaccines for malaria and denied allegations that Government received funds from donors but had little to show for it. Malaria vaccines given to children below the age of five have an efficacy of 50 per cent.