ECDC has published Understanding drug-resistant gonorrhoea: an ECDC whole genome sequencing study. Click or tap through to download the study this report is based on. Excerpt:
Can whole genome sequencing illustrate changes in drug susceptibility of gonorrhoea to antimicrobials used for treatment and so help to define more effective treatment regimens? The first study of this kind within an international surveillance programme for sexually transmitted infections shows distribution of drug-resistant gonorrhoea strains across Europe. The study results are published in an ECDC report and summarised in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
With more than 75 000 reported cases in 2016, gonorrhoea is the second most commonly notified bacterial sexually transmitted infection (STI) in Europe. But over the past decades, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacterium causing gonorrhoea, has been developing resistance to several antimicrobial classes as shown by the European Gonococcal Antimicrobial Surveillance Programme (Euro-GASP). This programme is co-ordinated by ECDC and annually monitors emerging resistance trends by testing susceptibility of the recommended antimicrobial agents for gonorrhoea treatment.
Previous Euro-GASP results indicate that susceptibility to antimicrobials and resistance patterns have changed over the years in the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA). Resistance to cefixime decreased since 2010 and while resistance to azithromycin dropped between 2010 and 2012, it subsequently increased again from 2013 onwards.
In the light of limited alternatives to the current recommended combination therapy with ceftriaxone and azithromycin (introduced in 2012), and recent reports of extensively drug resistant gonorrhoea strains, it is vital to understand if changes in resistance prevalence are the consequence of modifications in treatment, sexual behaviour in different sexual networks, the gonococcal strain distribution or due to other reasons.
