Scientists develop new antibiotic to treat super gonorrhea
Researchers at the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership say zoliflodacin could be a game-changer in the treatment of gonorrhea.
What you need to know:
- According to the lead investigator, Zoliflodacin is the first in a new class of antibiotics for Neisseria gonorrhea.
- Researchers also noted that the single-dose oral suspension also had a high microbiological cure rate.
It's relief for patients battling multi-drug resistant super gonorrhea after scientists developed an effective single-dose oral suspension.
The researchers at the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP) say zoliflodacin could be a game-changer for countries like Kenya in the treatment of the disease.
It is currently in phase three trials with an efficiency of 90.9 per cent.
According to the lead investigator, Zoliflodacin is the first in a new class of antibiotics for Neisseria gonorrhea — a World Health Organisation(WHO) high-priority pathogen — for 25 years.
Their study that has now been peer-reviewed and published in the New England Journal of Medicine as well as Nature involved 930 participants mainly from Africa and Asia.
“The trial had global reach with trial sites in Belgium, the Netherlands, South Africa, Thailand, and the United States. The large majority of patients came from regions where gonorrhea is a significant threat and new treatments are desperately needed, notably in Africa and Asia,” the researchers explained while further revealing that they know in Cambodia and Vietnam there is already around 10 per cent and 8 per cent resistance to any treatment.
“In China, it is probably worse, but numbers are unclear."
They further highlight that they opted for an oral drug because many people fear injections.
There was no resistance to Zoliflodacin detected in the trial.
However, the scientists say they observed that the drug is efficacious against gonorrhea infections that are resistant to other existing drugs and if only used for gonorrhea and not other infectious diseases which they say should prolong effectiveness.
"Since it is a new drug, there is no resistance to it because it has a new mechanism of action," Pierre Daram, the lead researcher at GARDP highlighted and added that 90 per cent of participants in their study were men, around half were black, and 21 per cent were living with HIV/AIDS.
"Now we have the positive phase 3 results, we want to understand what is the most appropriate use of zoliflodacin bearing in mind patient needs, public health needs, and the need to preserve the lifespan of the drug, and whether it should be for first-line or second-line use,"the lead researcher added.
The researchers further noted that the single-dose oral suspension also had a high microbiological cure rate at urogenital and extragenital sites of infection, and safety was comparable with the standard treatment of ceftriaxone plus azithromycin.
Last year the Director General for health at the ministry of health (MoH) Dr Patrick Amoth disclosed that a study conducted by the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) amongst 400 commercial sex workers in a Nairobi clinic found all to be grappling with super gonorrhoea.
“The study looked into the Neisseria gonorrhoea pathogen that causes gonorrhoea infection, in one individual, out of about 400, was one which was resistant to nearly all antibiotics that we put it through,” Dr Amoth said while lauding the findings by Ms Amina Abdullahi, a Kemri researcher who made the discovery.
A sample size of 346 participants was determined to be sufficient, but in the end, 400 participants were recruited by convenience sampling. Eligibility criteria included being between the ages of 18 and 49, having STI symptoms, and not having received antibiotic treatment in the previous two weeks.
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Ms Abdullahi and her team then used semi-structured questionnaires to collect socio-demographic factors (age, marital status, level of education) and behavioral factors (number of sexual partners, condom use, HIV status, pelvic pain, and history of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the past one year) and symptoms (vaginal discharge, itchy vulva, foul smell, and painful urination.
According to Kemri, Ms Abdullahi tested the isolated bacterium against 13 antimicrobials which comprise the mainstay antibiotics for the disease in the country and found that most of the sick women did not even have the clinical symptoms of gonorrhoea.
“The key affected drugs that we use for treatment of the disease in the country include ciprofloxacin and ceftriaxone, “MS Abdullahi observed in her findings while noting that they had recruited 400 female sex workers in Kenya’s capital who consented to participating in the study.
The Kemri researchers also used Three Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with eight participants each.
“A case of a sex worker named Jennifer who was married to John and had one child. She was in sex work for 10 years.
She hid her sex work from her husband, and he knew she was a supermarket attendant," the study highlights while explaining risky sexual behavior in Nairobi.
The US National Library of Medicine agreed with Kemri and noted that in recent years, Neisseria gonorrhoeae has developed a decreased susceptibility to ceftriaxone and cefixime.
It has also been found to be resistant to extended-spectrum cephalosporins which are third and fourth generation antibiotics used in humans and animals to treat infections due to multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria.
