hang on to your skivvies, folks!
Jan. 9th, 2013 12:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
twoeleven...and i mean that unfortunately literally. polydrug resistant gonorrhea has showed up in north america. (popular story; JAMA paper) the stuff is now showing disturbing resistance to what was our penultimate line of defense, an oral antibiotic called cefixime; about 7% of cases studied laughed it off. the last line of defense is ceftriaxone, a related injected drug, and gonorrhea is already resisting that. (that paper also just came out, but since it's a european journal, i'm not surprised the american press didn't pick it up.)
given the way resistant germs spread, it's just a matter of time until humanity completely loses this battle with the germs. we have no other treatments right now, and the next possibliity is years away. (and i suspect that since that will be our last line of defense for a big class of bacterial infections, the FDA won't let that one out of inpatient settings. we've lost too many drugs to sloppy use already.)
given the way resistant germs spread, it's just a matter of time until humanity completely loses this battle with the germs. we have no other treatments right now, and the next possibliity is years away. (and i suspect that since that will be our last line of defense for a big class of bacterial infections, the FDA won't let that one out of inpatient settings. we've lost too many drugs to sloppy use already.)