Nairobians recently woke up to a sensational headline by one of the local media company alerting them of a type of gonorrhea that resistant to treatment.
Days later, an International publication reported that cases gonorrhea that are resistance to antibiotics are on the rise in the united states.
This prompted UnreportedKe Team to do a research on why cases of drug resistance gonorrhea are on the rise in Kenya and across the world.
What is Gonorrhea?
For starters, gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted disease that can infect genitals, throat and the rectum. The disease is caused by a bacteria of the genus Neisseria.
People suffering from gonorrhea discharge pus from their genitals, experience a burning sensation while urinating and some men might have swollen testicles.
If left untreated, gonorrhea can lead to infertility or pelvic inflammatory disease.
Why it is becoming hard to treat gonorrhea?
Gonorrhea has become resistant to drugs, not only in Kenya but across the world. This because there has been a widespread misuse of antibiotics. Misuse of antibiotics makes bacteria develop mutations which renders them resistant to antibiotics. Mutations can also occur naturally without a trigger.
Government institutions and pharmaceutical companies have not been investing in invention and production of new antibiotics. Lack of new antibiotics in the market to replace the ones that bacterias have developed resistance to hinders treatment of bacterial infections like gonorrhea.
Patients who fail to complete their antibiotics doses also contribute to development of resistance among bacterias like gonorrhea.
According to World Health Organization, the overall increase in the number of gonorrhea strains cases that are resistant to antibiotics is as result human to human spread through sexual intercourse.
