Next epidemic to spill out of China could be SUPER GONORRHEA – where rate of antibiotic-resistant STIs are 40x higher than US and UK

China, known as ground zero for the Covid pandemic, could trigger a global rise in a new infectious disease: super gonorrhea.

Up to 98 percent of bacterial samples taken from patients with the STD in 13 Chinese provinces had the ability to evade first-line antibiotics, according to a new CDC report.

Gonorrhea has been effectively evading drugs for years, but the biggest concern among researchers is that China is reporting rates of a strain resistant to one of the last remaining effective antibiotics at rates 40 times higher than those in the US, UK and Canada.

Gonorrhea-causing bacteria are so good at evading antibiotics that the only remaining recommended treatment is ceftriaxone.

Gonorrhea has been on the rise in the US since 2012, with rates significantly higher per 100,000 in men than in women

In 2022, researchers joined the CDC in China collected more than 2,800 bacterial samples from patients with gonorrhea.

More than 97 percent of the samples were resistant to the drug ciprofloxacin, commonly known as Cipro, while 78 percent resisted treatment with penicillin, another ubiquitous antibiotic.

About 17 percent of the samples were resistant to azithromycin and cefixime, while eight percent were immune to the current standard of care, ceftriaxone.

The percentage of gonorrhea bacteria strains resistant to ceftriaxone has increased from 2.9 percent to 8.1 percent, which is much higher than what is reported in other countries.

In Great Britain, for example, only 0.21 percent of strains showed reduced susceptibility to ceftriaxone in 2022.

Gonorrhea is caused by bacteria that are increasingly able to evade treatment with standard antibiotics, making it a growing global public health threat

The above map shows gonorrhea rates in all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and territories in 2020, the latest available

CDC data showed that in the US between 2016 and 2020, only about 0.2 percent of strains had increased resistance to ceftriaxone.

In Canada, the ceftriaxone resistance rate remained relatively stable at about 0.6 percent from 2017 to 2021.

The researchers said: ‘These findings underline the urgent need for a comprehensive approach to tackle antibiotic-resistant N. gonorrhoeae in China, including identifying factors contributing to this high resistance rate.’

China was only the second country to document a case of ceftriaxone-resistant gonorrhea in 2016, after Japan identified one in 2009.

With antibiotic resistance rates rising, new drugs will always be needed to fight infections.

Gonorrhea is spread through sexual contact with the penis, vagina, mouth or anus of an infected partner.

It can also be spread perinatally from mother to baby during delivery.

In most cases it is not a fatal condition, but if left untreated it can become a more serious inflammatory problem, leading to pain in the pelvic area and even infertility.

Historically, penicillin was the first-line treatment, but due to widespread resistance its use has declined.

Subsequently, ciprofloxacin and other fluoroquinolones replaced penicillin as the first line of defense, until they too lost their effectiveness as resistance became more widespread.

Antibiotic resistance can occur when bacteria mutate over time. Overuse or misuse of antibiotics accelerates this.

Now ceftriaxone is the best treatment.

But given the speed at which strains can mutate and overcome certain drugs, one drug may need to be replaced by another in the near future. It may also be necessary for a completely new drug to be developed.

Globally, antibiotic-resistant infections of all types kill approximately 700,000 people every year.

That figure is is expected to rise to 10 million annual deaths by 2050 unless urgent action is taken to stop the spread of these pathogens.

Researchers said: ‘International cooperation and information sharing are crucial to prevent the further cross-border spread of drug-resistant strains and identify alternative treatment options for gonorrhea.’