As 2020 was marked as the year of the global pandemic caused due to the novel coronavirus disease, it seems that 2021 is going to be inundated by the new strain of the virus, and the viral infection has many side effects that its treatment have caused.
As experts find ways to counter the new strain of COVID found in the UK, and discover if the current vaccines will work on the strain or not, new side effects of COVID treatment have been reported.
One of these includes the explosion of super-gonorrhoea, which is reported due to high antibiotic use as a treatment for the viral infection.
After super gonorrhea started trending on Twitter, people started wondering what it was.
According to many leading news sources, it is actually a side effect of COVID-19.
What is super gonorrhea or super gonorrhoea?
Gonorrhea or gonorrhoea is a sexually transmitted infection. The disease is also commonly known as the “clap”. It’s caused by bacteria called Neisseria gonorrhoeae, also called gonococcus, which is usually found in penis discharge and vaginal fluid. The disease spreads through vaginal, oral or anal sex, or by fingers if they’ve been in contact with the bacteria.
Super-gonorrhoea is a more harsh strain of gonorrhoea. Super gonorrhoea refers to strains of the infection that have become challenging to the antibiotics usually prescribed to treat gonorrhoea.
Several antibiotics are being used in the treatment of COVID-19, which seemed to have triggered super gonorrhoea.
In 2018, the WHO had listed such strain of the N. gonorrhoeae bacteria on the world’s most dangerous superbugs list.
As per reports, a WHO spokesperson said that the overuse of azithromycin and the lack of services to treat sexually transmitted infections (STIs) during the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic may be leading to a rise in cases of super gonorrhoea.
Experts agree that use of azithromycin more often can choose for more resistant versions of N. gonorrhoeae. Earlier this year some people had recommended the use of azithromycin along with hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19.
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This was even before well-constructed and executed clinical studies were done to assess the safety and efficacy of such medications for treating severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) infections.
Since then clinical trials have not found enough evidence to support the use of such medicines for the treatment of COVID-19.
According to reports of Forbes, in a commentary in The Lancet, Catherine E. Oldenburg, PhD, an Assistant Professor and Thuy Doan, MD, PhD, an Associate Professor at the University of California, San Francisco, (UCSF) concluded “for patients with Covid-19, the addition of azithromycin to the existing standard of care regimens does not appear to improve outcomes,” after evaluating the results from the COALITION II trial that evaluated adding azithromycin to hydroxychloroquine and standard of care to treat patients hospitalized with severe Covid-19.
Premature treatment, without proper evidence of efficacy and safety of diseases in treatment of COVID-19, could do more harm than good, as it is evident in the cause of gonorrhoea spread.
The NIH, as of now recommends against the use of chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine with or without azithromycin for the treatment of Covid-19” in hospitalized or non-hospitalized COVID
