The World Health Organisation (WHO) has sounded a warning over the rapid spread of drug-resistant gonorrhea, a Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) that is increasingly becoming harder to treat with commonly used antibiotics.
The WHO’s Enhanced Gonococcal Antimicrobial Surveillance Programme (EGASP) recorded new findings showing an alarming increase in resistance to major treatment drugs between the years 2022 and 2024. Ceftriaxone, which is a first-line treatment recorded an increase in resistance from 0.8% to 5%. Also, Cefixime’s resistance increased from 1.7% to 11% over the same period.
The Ciprofloxacin drug is proving to be extremely ineffective with its resistant levels at 95% globally while Azithromycin has remained unchanged at 4%.
The data was collected from the EGASP’s participating countries globally, across the five WHO regions. They reported a total of 3,615 gonorrhea cases in 2024, while more than half of the cases which amounts to 52% were reported in the Western Pacific Region. Countries like Phillippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia recorded the highest numbers with 28%, 12%, 9% and 3% respectively. Reportedly, Vietnam and Cambodia also recorded the highest resistance rates.
Meanwhile, other regions were as well affected. In America, Brazil recorded 2% of the total cases, the Eastern Mediterranean region was represented by Qatar which reported 4% of the total cases, the African region recorded 28% of the cases and lastly, South-East Asia region was represented by Thailand which recorded 13% of the total cases.
The report further indicated that the medium age for the of the affected patients was 27 years, with the cases ranging from 12 to 94 years old. 20% of the infections came from men who have sex with other men, and 42% of the cases were from multiple sexual partners in the previous 30 days.
The World Health Organisation has therefore advised countries globally on the need of strengthening their national surveillance systems in order to detect and monitor drug-resistant infections in an early stage. The organization is also working on supporting expanded genomic surveillance to help them understand how resistance spreads and also to help in guiding treatment policies.
The Director of the WHO Department for HIV, TB, Hepatitis and STIs, Dr.Tereza Kasaeva emphasized that global cooperation is a key factor in addressing the rapid threat of drug-resistant gonorrhea. She also pointed out that strong surveillance and coordinated action are critical to ensure protection of public health globally.
