The World Health Organization has said antibiotic resistance is making gonorrhoea, a sexually-transmitted disease, much harder and sometimes impossible to treat.
The global health body, citing data from 77 countries including India, said every year an estimated 35.2 million people were infected by the disease in the WHO’s Western Pacific Region and 11.4 million in the South-East Asian Region.
Gonorrhoea disproportionately affects women, leading to pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy and infertility, as also increased HIV risk. Dr. Teodora Wi, Medical Officer, Human Reproduction, WHO, said the bacteria that cause gonorrhoea are particularly smart and every time we use a new class of antibiotics to treat the infection, the bacteria evolve to resist them.