Gonorrhea is caused by the bacteria Neisseria gonorrhoeae. It can be contracted by contact with the mouth, vagina, penis, or anus of an infected person. It was an almost forgotten ailment, but according to the Microbiological Information System, infections by gonorrhea have multiplied in Spain in recent times: from the 1,045 cases registered in 2000, we went to 2,742 in 2015, with a peak of 4,562 in 2014 .
Experts warn that unprotected sex is the main cause of this unexpected boom, and they point to something much more worrying: the disease is increasingly difficult to treat and could be incurable in the short term.
The blame is on the reckless abuse of antibiotics, which is helping the pathogen to become resistant to the drugs used so far to combat it.
In Spain there is no evidence of the arrival of a Neisseria gonorrhoeae super strain, but alarms have sounded in the United Kingdom. The National Health Service of that country has just published a report on an intractable outbreak of gonorrhea that has started in the north of the country and has already reached London.
The bacteria that cause it are proving to be indestructible and threaten to spread this disease that occurs with fevers, rashes, abdominal and genital pain and inflammation of the testicles (it is more aggressive in men), among other symptoms, and that can be complicated up to about to cause joint infections, heart valves and meningitis.
