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With super-gonorrhea set to arrive on American soil, it might be a little early to say “so long” to any of the age-old sexually transmitted diseases. The fact is, air travel and the new strains of super gonorrhea are a great reminder of the problem we face.
It’s convenient to think that we can live recklessly and science will always pick up the tab. Take a pill or get a shot, and they go away, right? Maybe. The miracle drugs used to treat such diseases are starting to fail. What’s worse is that we’ve now created “super strains” of many dangerous viruses and bacteria which are getting harder and harder to deal with.
Super-Gonorrhea Increasingly Resistant To Miracle Drugs
[the_ad id=”81876″]The fact is, gonorrhea is already very common in America, with over 700,000 new infections annually. If untreated in women, it may result in pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility. Men can be left sterile. Gonorrhea can also spread to the bloodstream, and if that happens, it can be deadly.
Why super-gonorrhea? Bacteria are constantly adapting to new conditions they face. Bacteria are usually killed outright by antibiotics, but many times they create new defence mechanisms and actually gain strength if a dose that is too small is used.
There was a time when penicillin, the first wonder drug, would treat gonorrhea effectively. Sometimes however, an insufficient dose was used. Brothels in Vietnam during the war illustrate the dilemma. Men treated with insufficient penicillin to kill the bacteria became hosts for the new, more powerful stains. Super strains then grew and spread literally across the planet.
Wrong Use Of Drugs Just Part Of The Problem
In many regions of the world, antibiotics are available without a prescription. Often they’re misused, providing these bugs more chances to mutate.
[the_ad id=”81685″]Sadly, gonorrhea isn’t the only biological enemy gaining ground on our culture. Even simple E. coli is becoming more resistant to treatment. Tuberculosis is also growing tougher and tougher for doctors to deal with.
Air travel has also made many of the new and dangerous strains of gonorrhea a problem for American doctors.
Of all of the obstacles we face in the battle against antibiotic resistance, the biggest is our lack of moral integrity. For too long we’ve believed that miracle drugs can replace morality. It’s all part of the “no consequences to my behavior” mind-set.
