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June 6, 2012 8:57 AM | CBS News

(CBS/AP) GENEVA - A strain of gonorrhea that is resistant to the disease's only remaining treatment,
cephalosporin antibiotics, has officials at the World Health Organization warning doctors around the world to
step up their efforts to stop the disease.

The U.N. health agency is urging governments and doctors to increase their surveillance efforts for the
antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection that can cause inflammation, infertility, pregnancy complications and, in
extreme cases, lead to maternal death. Babies born to mothers with gonorrhea have a 50 percent chance of
developing eye infections that may cause blindness.



Once considered a scourge of sailors and soldiers, gonorrhea - known sometimes as "the clap" - became
easily treatable with the discovery of penicillin. Now, it is again the second most common sexually transmitted
infection after chlamydia. The global health body estimates that of the 498 million new cases of curable
sexually transmitted infections worldwide, gonorrhea is responsible for some 106 million infections annually.
It also increases the chances of infection with other diseases, such as HIV.

Scientists believe overuse or incorrect use of antibiotics, coupled with the
gonorrhea bacteria's astonishing ability to adapt, means the disease is now close to becoming a super bug.

Bacteria that survive antibiotic treatment due to a mutation that makes them resistant then quickly spread
their genes in an accelerated process of natural selection. This is a general problem affecting all antibiotics,
but gonorrhea is particularly quick to adapt.

A gonorrhea strain resistant to cephalosporins was first found in Japan, HealthPop reported, raising
international concern. At the time the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also put out a warning to
doctors to be on the lookout for and report cases of cephalosporin-resistant gonorrhea.

More recently the resistance has also been detected in Britain, Australia, France, Sweden and Norway.
Therefore the Geneva-based agency wants countries not just to tighten their rules for antibiotic use, but
also to improve their surveillance systems so that the full extent of the problem can be determined.