Gonore is one of the many sexually transmitted diseases you can get by practicing unprotected sex with stranger sex partners, and this infection often goes unnoticed by the infected. This is scary because you risk the disease spreading to other parts of the body, and from there gonorrhea can cause serious complications such as pelvic inflammation, epididymitis, infectious arthritis and infertility. Fortunately, this can be avoided if you detect and treat the disease early in the course of treatment. You do this by testing yourself with a gonore test if you have a clear suspicion of gonorrhea, or if you are in one of the risk groups that have high incidence of gonorrhea.
What is common treatment for gonorrhea?
Today, standard treatment for gonore is a one-time dose of antibiotics, and this is recommended for:
Persons who test positive for a gonoretic test.
Anyone who has had sexual contact with a gonorrhythmic person within the last 60 days, even if they have no symptoms or have used a condom.
Newborns where the mother has had gonorrhea at birth.
It is important that you complete the entire antibiotic cure even if you receive more than one dose.
Do not have sexual contact with others …
… when you get treatment ..
… until you and your partner (s) have been tested and processed. If you have received treatment for gonorrhea while your partner has not received treatment, you will most likely be infected again.
If your treatment is a one-time dose of antibiotics, you should wait at least 7 days after you have taken your medicine before you have sex again.
Always use a condom when you have sex. This protects you from sexually transmitted diseases, and often tests yourself if you often have unprotected sex with different sex partners.
What do you do if treatment for gonore does not work?
If the symptoms persist, you may have been infected or an error has occurred in the treatment. You may also have been infected with a resistant gonococcal and the most common is that gonore develops resistance to antibiotics such as quinolones (synthetic antimicrobial medicines), penicillin and tetracyclines. When a bacterium becomes resistant to antibiotics, these types can not be used to fight the disease. Then the doctor must take a new test to determine which type of antibiotics will be most effective.
Gonore and development of resistance to antibiotics
Gonococcus has developed resistance to traditional antibiotics over decades, and penicillin has not been used in the treatment of gonoras since the mid 80’s when the first resistant outbreaks occurred. Since then it has gradually become more and more difficult to treat the disease, and through the 90s and the turn of the millennium the broad spectrum classes of antibiotics also lost their effect on the gonococcus. But this also lost the effect on gonorrhea. Today, cephalosporins (an antibiotic based on a type of fungus) are used, but in some countries, resistance to this treatment strategy has also been observed. If resistance development persists, we risk losing the war against gonore as ultimately there will no longer be any effective treatment for the disease.
Why do we get “super-resistant” gonococci?
Today, there are many pathogenic microbes that develop resistance to antibiotics, as in many cases these medicines are printed without clear indication. In Norway and Western Europe, we are fortunate enough to print the right type of antibiotics for the right indication, but in many developing countries anyone can buy any type of antibiotics at the pharmacy – without giving any good reason. This is not only a problem for the poor countries, but also for us in Norway because the world has gradually become more and more globalized. This was evident by 2015, when there was a new outbreak of a “super-resistant” gonococcus in northern England. In spite of the fact that we do not have high incidence of gonorrhea in Norway, the imminent threat of a multiresistant of strain gonore is very creepy.
How do we prevent resistance development in strains of gonore?
There are ongoing attempts at vaccines and other antibiotics in 2016, where the final trials show positive results. In short, there is a further development of cephalosporins straight to gonorrhea; Cefixime®, which with appropriate dosage has been shown to be very effective against gonorrhea bacteria, and the vaccines are an anti-biofilm vaccine. Nevertheless, the best method for limiting the spread of gonorrhea will always be to detect infection early by testing yourself regularly so you can actively help prevent further spread of a public disease that is close to chlamydia in the number of newly infected people in the year , in Norway and the rest of the world.