Gonorrhea appears to be growing increasingly resistant to drugs called cephalosporins, the only remaining class of antibiotics available to treat the sexually transmitted disease, according to a new report. Researchers analyzed 10 years’ worth of gonorrhea samples (isolates) from men in 30 U.S. cities. The samples were collected between January 2000 and June 2010 through the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Gonococcal Isolate Surveillance Project. The analysis revealed an increase in the proportion of samples with elevated minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs), the lowest concentration of antibiotics needed to halt the growth of gonorrhea bacteria. These increases in MICs suggest a decline in gonorrhea’s susceptibility to antibiotics, the researchers explained in a CDC news release.
