Embarrassing Stuff We Need to Talk About

We wrote the following yesterday: What is concerning about any infection, sexual or otherwise is the possibility of resistance to antibiotics. Bacteria can mutate and become resistant to the antibiotic.

Overnight news reports that a new superbug strain of gonorrhoea has emerged in Japan. The term “superbug” refers to a bacteria that has become resistant to treatment with antibiotics. In other words the bacteria can live quite successfully, even thrive in the presence of antibiotics. Scientists, doctors and health professionals are alarmed. There is no known treatment for this new strain of neisseria, the organism responsible for the disease known as gonorrhoea.

The new strain of neisseria is known as H041 and so far none of the conventially prescribed antibiotics are effective against it. Gonorrhea is a bacterial sexually transmitted infection and if left untreated can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease a painful condition that is responsible for permanent damage to female reproductive organs and resulting in infertility.

Antibiotics have been wonderful in that many lives have been saved and life expectancy has been increased due to their availability. Unfortunately they have been subject to overuse and improper use that has resulted in antibiotic resistance. It is now estimated that some 70% of bacteria being treated in hospital situations are resistant to at least one antibiotic. What is scary about this story is that a particularly nasty infectious disease is now resistant to all antibiotics.

What can you do to protect yourself? As we suggested strongly yesterday, the use of condoms is extremely wise but there is still a risk. The greatest risks come from casual sexual encounters. Almost always significant alcohol consumption is involved. Again we recommend condom usage and point you to our embarrassing section if you want to buy condoms discretely. Our message is be aware and be prepared. Please be safe out there.