Madrid
A new single-dose oral medication has cured gonorrhea in nearly 900 patients during a clinical trial. It has been effective even against resistant strains, the so-called supergonorrhea.
The WHO warns that this sexually transmitted disease is becoming multi-resistant to antibiotics and “could become untreatable.” Between 2022 and 2024, resistance to the two drugs commonly used to treat it has grown from 2% to 11% of cases and dozens of new resistant strains have appeared.
Now this medicine called zoliflodacin may be the solution. The magazine The Lancet published this morning the results of the phase 3 clinical trial. A single oral dose was as effective as the current standard treatment, which combines two antibiotics in injection and pills.
Gonorrhea is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections, affecting more than 82 million people worldwide each year. However, it is becoming more difficult, according to the WHO, as the bacteria causing the infection develop resistance to current antibiotics.
This new drug has the potential to help curb this trend. The international trial involved more than 900 people from five countries (USA, South Africa, Thailand, Belgium and the Netherlands) and in 90% of the cases the infection was cured.
Zoliflodacin is awaiting authorization from the FDA in the United States. Its creators, an international Dutch and American scientific group, claim that by making it accessible they could protect the sexual health of millions of people.
