Antibiotic Resistance
Gonorrhea (Neisseria gonorrhoeae)
Gonorrhea (gon a REE a) is a sexually transmitted disease in humans.
ANYONE who is sexually active can conract gonorrhea.
Many people who have gonorrhea don't know it.
Especially in women, the disease has no symptoms.
People can pass gonorrhea without knowing it.
Gonorrhea can be cured with the right treatment; however, if not treated, gonorrhea can lead to serious health
problems.
ANYONE who is sexually active can conract gonorrhea.
Many people who have gonorrhea don't know it.
Especially in women, the disease has no symptoms.
People can pass gonorrhea without knowing it.
Gonorrhea can be cured with the right treatment; however, if not treated, gonorrhea can lead to serious health
problems.
Gonorrhea Environment
Gonorrhea easily grows in warm, moist environments.
These environments include the following areas of the reproductive tract:
These environments include the following areas of the reproductive tract:
- The cervix (opening to the womb)
- The uterus (womb)
- Fallopian tubes (egg canals) in women
- Urethra (urine canal) in men and women
- The bacterium can also grow in the mouth, throat, eyes, and anus in both men AND women.
Biotic Factors
The average body temperature of humans is 37.0 °C (98.6 °F).
Abiotic Factors
The hotter it is on the inside of the person, the quicker it spreads through the system.
How Gonorrhea Became Resistant to Antibiotics
This bacterium is particularly good at picking up pieces of DNA from other bacteria, thereby making changes to its genetic makeup and sometimes resulting in new ways to evade antibiotics. By this process, different strains of N. gonorrhoeae have systematically become resistant to all but one class of antibiotics: cephalosporins. However, recent data suggest that even cephalosporins are becoming less effective against some strains found in the United States, Asia, and Europe. There is increasing concern that N. gonorrhoeae may develop resistance to all available antibiotics, resulting in untreatable gonorrhea. WIth this information, one could conclude that gonorrhea became resistant via evolution.
Who is to Blame For Gonorrhea Antibiotics Resistance
YOU!!!!!!!!!!!
People everywhere are to blame for gonorrea's antibiotic resistance. Young teens who are sexually active, people who have unprotected sex, and even the people who have no knowledge of safe sex or sexually transmitted diseases. If people continue to be unaware or simply ignore this problem, gonorrhea will no longer be curable. With gonorrhea being incurable, gonorrhea will be a much bigger concern in the future than it was in the past and present.
Benefits and Negatives to Gonorrhea's Antibiotic Resisitance
Benefits:
There are no possible benefits of gonorrhea of gonorrhea being resistant to antibiotics.
Negatives:
Gonorrhea being resistant to antibiotics makes it harder dor scientists to treat gonorrhea.
It is possible there will be no more treatment options for gonorrhea.
Also, gonorrhea being resistant to antibiotics means that gonorrhea will continue to spread and will become an even bigger concern.
Potential Effects of Being Resistant
Untreated gonorrhea can have serious health consequences, such as PID (Pelvic Inflammatory Disease) and infertility, and can cause potential life-threatening diseases and increases a person's risk for contracting HIV. Treatment of gonorrhea has become complicated due to its ability to develop resistance to every possible antibiotic recomended for treatment. Drug resistant gonorrhea would have economic consequences in the U.S. Possibly in the next 7 years, there would be an additional 6,000,000 cases of gonorrhea as a result of drug resistance. Gonorrhea affects the entire human race. Gonorrhea, if left untreated, can cause infertility in women; therefore, this can cause a decrease in the population.
Human Involvement of Resistance
Humans can contribute to gonorrhea's resistance by continuously having unprotected sex or being unaware of the effects of STDs. Having unprotected sex generates more cases of gonorrhea; in addition, scientists need more medicine. If scientists continue to use the same antibiotic treatments, gonorrhea will eventually adapt to the medicine and evolve, making gonorrhea resistant to any possible medicine or treatments.
Human's Effect on the Food Web
Gonorrhea's resistance has many affects in the food web, some positive and some negative. It is said that gonorrhea will become resistant to all possible treatments in the near future. With that said, the human population will most likely decrease, but that doesn't mean the end of the world for most people and animals. Natural resources will not deplete at such a fast rate, nonrewable resources can be conserved, and the supply and demand for such resources will be balanced out. In the animal kingdom, many species that were on the edge of extinction will have a chance to repopulate. Many animals won't have to worry about being eaten or killed because their habitats will be restored.
About 500,000 to 600,000 new cases of gonorrhea occur each year in the United States. Since 2005, approximately 1,700 cases of gonorrhea have been diagnosed each year in King County, which is much higher than previous years.
Young adults are most at risk for contracting gonorrhea.
60% of gonorrhea infections occur in people ages 15 to 24.
Between 60% to 73% of young adults diagnosed with an STI become infected again in less than a year.
Disseminated Gonococcal Infection occurs when gonorrhea gets into the blood. This is rare but can be very serious. The main symptoms are joint pain and swelling, fever and skin rash. Rarely, this infection can get into the blood and cause a type of arthritis and other problems.
Resources
http://www.cdc.gov/std/gonorrhea/stdfact-gonorrhea.htm
http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/antimicrobialresistance/examples/neisseria/Pages/default.aspx
http://www.idsociety.org/uploadedFiles/IDSA/Policy_and_Advocacy/Current_Topics_and_Issues/Advancing_Product_Research_and_Development/Bad_Bugs_No_Drugs/Press_Releases/Fact%20Sheet%20Resistant%20GC_12-19-2011.pdf
http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/antimicrobialresistance/examples/neisseria/Pages/default.aspx
http://www.idsociety.org/uploadedFiles/IDSA/Policy_and_Advocacy/Current_Topics_and_Issues/Advancing_Product_Research_and_Development/Bad_Bugs_No_Drugs/Press_Releases/Fact%20Sheet%20Resistant%20GC_12-19-2011.pdf