First new treatments for sexually transmitted disease in decades approved by US Food and Drug Administration as number of cases worldwide surge to 82m
The first new treatments for gonorrhoea in decades could be a “huge turning point” in efforts to combat the rise of superbug strains of the bacteria, researchers have said.
Gonorrhoea is on the rise around the world, with more than 82m infections globally each year and particularly high rates in Africa and countries in the World Health Organization’s Western Pacific region, which reaches from Mongolia and China to New Zealand. Cases in England are at a record high, and rates in Europe were three times higher in 2023 than in 2014.
Health officials are concerned about an increase in drug-resistant strains of the bacterium, with the WHO designating it a “priority pathogen”. A WHO surveillance programme found resistance to the primary antibiotics used to treat gonorrhoea, ceftriaxone and cefixime, had risen sharply from 0.8% to 5% and from 1.7% to 11% respectively between 2022 and 2024.
Zoliflodacin is one of two new treatments for the sexually transmitted infection to receive regulatory approval in the past week.
