Preventing sexually transmitted diseases is your best option; however, even when you do, you need the assurance that drugs can come to your rescue. That used to be the case, but it is not anymore.
Multi-drug resistance to Gonorrhea (a sexually transmitted disease caused by Neisseria gonorrhoeae) is becoming a concern in developing countries as previously effective drugs such as penicillin, ciprofloxacin, tetracycline, azithromycin, ceftriaxone and cefixime are no longer as effective for therapy. This is threatening to human lives as the over 82 million new cases of gonorrhoea infection reported in 2020 were found to be resistant to one or more of the previously effective drugs.
The World Health Organization (WHO), in its continuous effort to improve health, set up the WHO Gonococcal Antimicrobial Surveillance Programme (GASP). This programme aims to ensure adequate documentation of the incidences of gonorrhoea and its resistance to therapy to prepare guidelines for treatment.
What the WHO GASP is all about
The GASP is a global laboratory network coordinated by regional coordinating centres and focal points. Each designated regional focal point, in collaboration with its respective WHO regional office, compiles data regarding antibiotic susceptibility trends in gonorrhoea in participating countries.
The WHO GASP aims to:
- To provide adequate sentinel surveillance of antibiotic resistance so that guidance on treatment can be provided in every nation.To devise a strategy to rapidly detect patients with gonococcal infection who exhibit microbiological or clinical treatment failure after receiving the prescribed cephalosporin therapy.
To ensure effective clinical management, which guarantees that infected individuals and their sexual partners receive appropriate clinical care.
The progress in implementing the WHO GASP led to the Enhanced Gonococcal Antimicrobial Surveillance Program (EGASP), in which clinics and sentinel sites progressively identify men with urethral discharge. By the end of 2023, ten nations representing most WHO regions had adopted EGASP.
The generic EGASP protocol is one tool that can help with EGASP implementation and advancement. Treatment failure procedures, extragenital surveillance, and the whole-genome sequencing framework are examples of supplementary protocols.
Future prospect for curbing gonorrhoea resistance
Safer sexual activity and the proper use of condoms can prevent gonorrhoea. Reducing the incidence of Neisseria gonorrhoeae infection by 90% by 2030 is one of the targets stated by the Global Health Sector Strategy on STIs. The Strategy has highlighted the importance of developing effective gonococcal vaccines because this reduction may be challenging to accomplish with current therapies and because AMR is on the rise. Vaccines against gonococci are not available at this time. Not only have gonococcal AMR rates risen sharply, but there is also growing scientific evidence that suggests gonococcal vaccinations are attainable, which has rekindled interest in developing such a vaccine.
In response to this novel and possibly effective preventative measure, today, the World Health Organization’s Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research, Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals, and Global HIV, Hepatitis, and STIs Programmes are releasing a new document outlining the WHO’s preferred product attributes for gonococcal vaccines. This will help in the development of these vaccines, especially for people in low- and middle-income nations. Indications and target populations for vaccines, factors to consider when evaluating safety and efficacy, and strategies for delivering gonorrhoea vaccines are all part of this document that aims to optimise the public health impact of vaccines on a worldwide scale.
