Drug-Resistant Gonorrhoea Surges Across 82 Million Cases as AMR Nears 5 Million Deaths a Year
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Jun 30
Drug-Resistant Gonorrhoea Surges Across 82 Million Cases as AMR Nears 5 Million Deaths a Year
1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jun 30
Summary
82 million gonorrhoea cases were recorded globally in 2020, and a rising share are now resistant to treatment, leaving ceftriaxone as the only remaining recommended antibiotic in many cases.
Extensively drug-resistant strains detected in Cambodia have already appeared in France and Australia, underscoring how travel, migration and dense urban living are helping resistant infections spread through communities, not just hospitals.
One in six bacterial infections is now resistant to first-line antibiotics, while community-acquired threats such as MRSA are also becoming more common and more dangerous, especially in low- and middle-income countries with weaker surveillance and strained health systems.
Nearly 5 million AMR-related deaths occur each year and the toll is projected to rise 70% by 2050, adding urgency to calls for new antibiotic development models such as the not-for-profit approach behind zoliflodacin.