On Citizen TV’s News Night show, Dr. Patrick Amoth, acting director general at the Ministry of Health, discussed the super gonorrhea infection case reported in Kenya last week. After a study conducted by the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) on sex workers was released and 400 samples tested, one case was found to be resistant to nearly all antibiotics it was put through.
“This report came from a study that was conducted by KEMRI among commercial sex workers and out of the pathogens they looked at was Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the organism that causes gonorrhoea and out of that there were quite a number of pathogens that were resistant to ordinary antibiotics and in one particular individual, out of a sample of 400, was one that was resistant to nearly all the antibiotics we put it through,” said Dr. Amoth.
The Ministry of Health’s Departmental Head stated that the samples used in the study that confirmed the Super Gonorrhea case in Kenya were old data, but noted that KEMRI was currently conducting a deeper review and analysis to establish the spread and span of this strain of gonorrhea. Dr. Amoth, however, underscored the importance of taking precautions; noting that the gonorrhea strain reported to be resistant to all antimicrobials has also been reported in other countries including Japan, Thailand and the UK.
“KEMRI is doing a deep dive to be able to inform us further on the spread and span of this particular strain of gonorrhoea and once we have that information we will be able to put in place the appropriate interventions to forestall it. This was from slightly old data but is very pertinent. This has also been reported in other jurisdictions such as Japan, Thailand and the UK. So we are not an isolated community so we need to take it seriously,” said Dr. Amoth.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged Kenyans to take the necessary protective measures such as using condoms and reducing the number of sexual partners. Super gonorrhoea, also referred to as super-resistant gonorrhoea, is an extensively drug-resistant gonorrhoea with high-level resistance to the current recommended treatment for gonorrhea (ceftriaxone and azithromycin) including resistance to penicillin, sulphonamides, tetracycline, fluoroquinolones, macrolides.
A World Health Organization spokesman was quoted as saying that the overuse of azithromycin for COVID-19 was directly leading to drug-resistant strains of gonorrhea, according to Dr. Teodora Wi, a World Health Organization Medical Officer specializing in STIs. She says that factors including unrestricted access to antimicrobials, inappropriate selection and overuse of antibiotic and suboptimal quality of antibiotics have caused the rise of resistant gonorrhea.
