Thursday, April 12, 2007

Only one class of antibiotics remains effective against gonorrhea: U.S. CDC

From CBC News:
The wily gonorrhea bacterium appears to be en route to vanquishing yet another class of antibiotics, leaving just one last weapon in the arsenal to fight this very common sexually transmitted disease.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control on Thursday urged American doctors to stop using all antibiotics in the fluoroquinolone class to treat gonorrhea, a decision prompted by rising rates of resistance among gonorrhea strains isolated in the United States and beyond.

Doctors should instead use antibiotics from the cephalosporin class, said Dr. John Douglas, who noted this is the only remaining class of drugs effective against the infection. He also warned there are no new antibiotics in the pharmaceutical pipeline to fight gonorrhea. ...more

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