Just In Time For Valentines: “Super Gonorrhea” Threatens New York

Health officials in New York are on high alert to a new threat to the state: super gonorrhea. Super gonorrhea is another name for the gonorrhea superbug, a menacing new strain of the widespread sexually transmitted infection.

Super gonorrhea has been slowly spreading through Europe and Asia, and has now been discovered in the States with dangerous proximity to Upstate. The CDC says they have known this was coming, but proper treatment could still be years away.

What Is Super Gonorrhea?

The gonorrhea superbug isn’t any more fast acting that the average variety, it’s just much more difficult to treat. For decades, doctors have used antibiotics to treat gonorrhea. As the STI mutates, it becomes resistant to those antibiotics in a desire to survive, to the point where modern medicine no longer has a strong enough treatment.

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There’s only one antibiotic that super gonorrhea still responds to, but soon that may no longer be an option either. If the super gonorrhea cannot be treated, it can cause dangerous complications – the STI can lead to infertility, especially in women, if left untreated. The closest drug that pharmaceuticals have to combating the superbug is in Phase 3 trials, which could be years from being available.

Super Gonorrhea In New York

In January, health officials confirmed the drug-resistant STI was found in two patients in Massachusetts. Doctors fear there are most likely more cases of super gonorrhea out there, and with the proximity to New York that the superbug could already be spreading in the state.

Gonorrhea is spread through sex, and its most common in young people ages 15-24. The CDC says the risk of gonorrhea is reduced by using condoms during sex. With overuse of antibiotics and anti-microbials, world health leaders worry that soon we could have other “super” STIs like super syphilis and super chlamydia.