The World Health Organization (WHO) announced in 2022 that the world is running out of ways to treat once easily-curable sexually transmitted infections. The outlook on these infections is the same and even more so now. The infection is reportedly becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics due to “misuse and overuse” of antibiotics, according to WHO. The organization also released new guidelines for treatment for some of these STDs, which are also becoming resistant to the drugs typically used to treat them.
Gonorrhea is a relatively common disease, infecting 78 million people each year. Anyone who is sexually active can get gonorrhea, and the disease can spread like wildfire through unprotected sex. Some infected people have no symptoms at all, while others may experience burning with urination, and a swarm of other genital affections. If untreated gonorrhea can occasionally spread to affect joints or heart valves.
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Traditionally, treating gonorrhea has been easy with antibiotics. But resistance to antibiotics has grown dramatically in recent years. Strains of multidrug-resistant gonorrhea that do not respond to any available antibiotics have already been detected, the main cause for this being antibiotics overuse in trivial cases.
“Gonorrhea used to be susceptible to penicillin, ampicillin, tetracycline and doxycycline — very commonly used drugs,” said Jonathan Zenilman, who studies infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins. “But one by one, each of those antibiotics — and almost every new one that has come along since — eventually stopped working. One reason is that the bacterium that causes gonorrhea can mutate quickly to defend itself, Zenilman said.
Symptoms vary depending on the area of the body affected, and include:
In light of the drug resistance to gonorrhea, the new guidelines from the WHO advise that doctors treating gonorrhea patients cease to prescribe quinolones, a class of antibiotics previously effective in the treatment of gonorrhea. Now, doctors are advised to use cephalosporins, a different class of antibiotics.
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As for when antibiotic options will run out altogether, Teodora Wi of the WHO’s Department of Reproductive Health and Research tells the journal Science, “We will have to have new drugs in 5 years, I think.”
The U.S. government is spending millions of dollars through the CDC and National Institutes of Health to develop new antibiotics and combat resistance.
Herpes comes in two forms: herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) and herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2). Either of these viruses can cause genital herpes or oral herpes. However, HSV-1 usually causes oral herpes, while HSV-2 is more often associated with genital herpes.
Both forms of herpes are notable for the formation of blisters and sores in the infected areas. These sores are highly contagious and can be transmitted via skin-to-skin contact. Since it isn’t curable, herpes is a lifelong infection that can result in occasional recurring outbreaks during which symptoms temporarily reappear.
Most people with herpes have no symptoms or only mild symptoms. Many people aren’t aware they have the infection and can pass along the virus to others without knowing. Symptoms can include:
Treatment for herpes typically consists of antiviral medication for a specified timeframe (the exact time frame depends on the person under consideration and may be from several days or weeks to several months). The job of the antiviral medication is to stop the virus from replicating further in the body, which can help prevent or reduce the recurrence of outbreaks.
Hepatitis B is one of the leading causes of liver cancer. Babies usually receive a vaccine against this infection at birth, but many adults born before 1991 may not have received the vaccine.
Most cases of hepatitis B don’t cause symptoms and most adults can fight the infection on their own. If you have hepatitis B, your best option is to speak to your doctor about checking your liver and your medication options to lessen symptoms. Immune system modulators and antiviral medications can help slow the virus’s damage to your liver.
Many people with chronic hepatitis B don’t have symptoms and don’t know they are infected. Symptoms may not appear for up to six months after infection. Symptoms usually appear 60–150 days after exposure and can include:
Human papillomavirus is extremely common. About 9 out of 10 sexually active people will contract HPV. About 90 percent of these infections go away within two years of detection. However, HPV is still incurable and, in some cases, it can lead to:
Some of the types of HPV associated with genital cancers can lead to cancer of the anus or penis in men. Both of these cancer types are rare, especially in men with a healthy immune system. The American Cancer Society (ACS) estimates that in 2022, about 2,070 men in the U.S. will be diagnosed with cancer of the penis and 3,150 men will be diagnosed with anal cancer.
The WHO also revised its guidelines for treating two other sexually transmitted infections, chlamydia and syphilis. Neither is facing severe antibiotic resistance but the U.S. still sees spikes in these diagnoses. Syphilis, for example, can be treated with a single dose of penicillin, although there is a worldwide shortage of the drug.
Although all these sexually transmitted diseases affect both men and women, they can have particularly devastating effects on women if they are not treated. Gonorrhea can cause pelvic inflammatory disease and lead to dangerous ectopic pregnancies. Syphilis can pass from a pregnant woman to her fetus, and chlamydia can make it difficult for a woman to get pregnant.
For more on specific sexually transmitted infections, click here.
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