A new study just published has documented that first antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea cases have been detected in North America — a strain of gonorrhea that is immune to the last remaining effective oral antibiotic. It has been observed in at least nine North American patients. Gonorrhea is the second most commonly reported notifiable disease in the United States. Recent data indicate that African American gonorrhea rates are 18.7 times the rate among whites. Moreover, African Americans account for 69 percent of all new gonorrhea cases each year, according to STI surveillance data.
In a study released by the Journal of the American Medical Association, a group of scientists led by Vanessa Allen of Public Health Ontario, found that 6.7 percent of patients with gonorrhea at a Toronto clinic still had the disease after being given cephalosporins — the last effective oral antibiotic used to treat the disease. The nine gonorrhea-positive individuals in the study represented the first time cephalosporin-resistant gonorrhea found in humans in North America.
Just this past year, many international health organizations, including the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control, warned that untreatable gonorrhea could be the new standard for future STIs. Gonorrhea is estimated to infect close to 700,000 Americans each year. Symptoms include painful urination, abdominal pain, genital discharge, itching, and infertility in women. Women who have both HIV and gonorrhea are more likely to pass HIV to their offspring than women with just HIV.
Unfortunately, the frightening facts above highly affect people who work in strip clubs. A study from Harvard Medical School also published in JAMA reported that the average exotic dancer has a self-reported lifetime STD rate of 87 percent and the actual number is likely even higher as disease rates are typically underreported because of either lack of awareness or shame.
The complete study can be read at https://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1556149
