Scary Changes in Sexually Transmitted Infection

Drug-resistant gonorrhea is spreading across Europe and has health authorities very concerned. Strains that have become nearly impossible to treat with ordinary antibiotics represented 10 percent of sexually transmitted disease cases in 2010. That was more than double the rate in 2009. Without effective antibiotics, this sexually transmitted disease could spread like wildfire. Complications of untreated gonorrhea include infertility, pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancies, stillbirths and serious eye infections in newborns. With more than 700,000 cases of gonorrhea in the U.S. each year, the specter of antibiotic-resistant strains of this infection is frightening.