The unnecessary overuse of antibiotics during the coronavirus pandemic has fueled an increase in drug-resistant strains of super gonorrhea, according to a new report.
Azithromycin, a commonly used antibiotic used to treat chest and sinus infections, was used during the pandemic to prevent co-infection of hospitalized coronavirus patients and to treat inflammatory symptoms of severe infections.
But the widespread dispensing of the drug – which has since been found to have no clinical benefit for COVID-19 patients – has led to an increase in resistance to the bacteria that cause gonorrhea, the World Health Organization (WHO) told the sun.
“Community overuse of antibiotics may fuel the emergence of antimicrobial resistance in gonorrhea,” a WHO spokesman told the outlet, noting that azithromycin was previously used in the pandemic for treatment with COVID-19.
To make matters worse, the infection has also “disrupted” usual STI services by overloading medical centers and scaring people to go there, the spokesman said.
“This means that more STD cases are not being correctly diagnosed, with the result that more people are self-medicating,” the WHO representative told the British newspaper.
“Such a situation may stimulate the emergence of resistance in gonorrhea, including gonorrhea superbug (super gonorrhea) or gonorrhea with high resistance to the current antibiotics recommended to treat it.”
The Sun cited a US study that found that 71 percent of COVID patients were on antibiotics – while at most 4 percent had reason to need them.
“The use of antibiotics cannot be treated [COVID-19] but it will create resistance among bacteria already in our bodies, ”WHO’s assistant director general for its antimicrobial resistance division, Dr. Hanan Balkhy, to the British newspaper.
“The bottom line is that antibiotics shouldn’t be prescribed unless there is a clear medical indication for them,” she said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said last week that the number of gonorrhea cases has increased by 63 percent since 2014 – warning that it “ may facilitate ” HIV transmission.
Infections can also lead to infertility in both men and women and cause blindness in babies born to infected mothers.
Kevin Cox, executive chairman of British startup Biotaspheric Limited, told the Sun that the medical community “urgently [needs] new treatments. “
“People infected with super gonorrhea will infect others and accelerate antimicrobial resistance,” he said.