Penicillin-resistant gonorrhea spreading

Press, 2 April 1987, Page 18

Penicillin-resistant gonorrhea spreading

NZPA-AP Atlanta A penicillin-resistant strain of gonorrhea has spread to the point where talk of eradicating it may be impractical, Federal health researchers say.

The National Centres for Disease Control (C.D.C) said 16,608 cases of penicillin-resistant gonorrhea were reported in the United States last year, up 90 per cent from the year before. Sixty-four per cent of all cases of the sexually transmitted disease occurred in three areas previously identified as outbreak sites: New York City, with 3986 cases; Los Angeles, with 942; and Florida, with 5629—2648 of those in Miami and Dade County. Compared with 1985, the disease was up 8 per cent in Miami, 74 per cent in the rest of Florida, 93 per cent in Los Angeles and 154 per cent in New York.

“It now appears that with more than 10,000

cases in New York, Florida and Los Angeles alone, penicillin-resistant gonorrhea, first discovered in 1976, has reached the critical mass it needed to start generating substantial increases,” said Dr Jonathan Zenilman, a specialist in sexually transmitted diseases. “In the past, we looked to eradication,” he said. “But now I think eradication is really impractical." “Once it (the penicillinresistant strain) becomes entrenched in a community, it has the same characteristics as regular, gar-den-variety gonorrhea. And gonorrhea has been with us for a long time. “In most cases, the disease is easily treated with other drugs. It’s not a new strain, and it’s treatable if you use the right antibiotics,” Dr Zenilman said.

"But efforts to combat it in a community where it has taken hold are difficult and expensive,” the C.D.C said in its

weekly report. If not properly treated, penicillin-resistant gonorrhea can lead to serious complications, including pelvic inflammatory disease in women.

Researchers are concerned that while the disease is becoming more common, it is spreading to previously unaffected areas.

They said treatment programmes were limited in their ability to stop an outbreak; New York began treating all-gonorrhea patients in its public clinics for the penicillin-re-sistant strain in 1985, but cases still rose 154 per cent.

“Although you treat the patient, it’s difficult to get their sexual contacts in,’’ Dr Zenilman said. “And if you just treat the patient, you are only treating onehalf of the disease. In urban areas, it’s physically impossible to get all the partners in. :