Gonorrhoea: Encouraging decrease in certain antibiotic resistance levels of gonococci across Europe
On an annual basis, countries of the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA) participate in Euro-GASP to test susceptibility of Neisseria gonorrhoeae to the antibiotics commonly used for gonorrhoea treatment. In 2014, 23 EU/EEA countries collected and tested more than 2,000 gonococcal isolates and found a significantly lower proportion with cefixime resistance (2%), compared with 2013 when 4.7% of the tested isolates were not susceptible to this drug. The 2014 results continue the trend of decreasing cefixime resistance that started in 2010 (8.7%) but was interrupted by a slight increase in 2013. The ECDC report Gonococca antimicrobial susceptibility surveillance in Europe 2014 [add link] also shows that resistance to the antibiotic azithromycin has colntinued to rise across Europe since 2012 to a level of 8% of tested isolates in 2014. The highest resistance to this recommended drug was seen among isolates taken from men who have sex with men (10%) and m...