Stay Up-to-Date on Drug-resistant Gonorrhea with New CDC Resources

What You Need to Know and Share about Drug-resistant Gonorrhea Gonorrhea is the second most commonly reported communicable disease in the U.S., with an estimated 820,000 new infections each year.

Antibiotics have been used to successfully treat gonorrhea for several decades but now the bacteria has developed resistance to nearly every drug used for treatment.

There is only one recommended treatment option left, but concerning developments reported last year suggest gonorrhea may be developing resistance to this last treatment.

CDC is investing in every state to enhance the nation’s capacity to better detect, respond to and contain, and prevent drug resistance. CDC’s new tools will help you make sure your communities are aware of the emerging threat of drug-resistant gonorrhea and help them better understand the issues.

Take Action!

1. Watch and share the new video to help raise awareness about drug-resistant gonorrhea.
   The video illustrates gonorrhea’s history of overpowering almost every drug ever used to treat it, the current challenges we face, and the dangers of this common infection becoming untreatable.
2. Stay up-to-date with the latest national data about gonorrhea.
   The 2015 Gonococcal Isolate Surveillance Project (GISP) Profiles are now available. In addition to the national antimicrobial susceptibility results included in the 2015 STD Surveillance Report, the GISP Profiles provide a one-stop resource to assure you have the most up-to-date national and local CDC antimicrobial susceptibility data.
3. Learn how CDC’s AR Solutions Initiative is investing in work to combat drug-resistant gonorrhea.
   CDC is investing in every state to implement a containment strategy. In nine states, response teams work to quickly detect and respond to the threat of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea in the U.S. CDC is also supporting the AR Lab Network, seven regional labs across the country, and labs in all states and seven major cities/territories to detect and respond to Salmonella, multidrug-resistant gonorrhea, and the “nightmare bacteria” CRE. A subset of regional labs will support increased gonorrhea testing for identification of resistance changes to inform outbreak response.