Medical researchers may have found a treatment for antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, but the remedy doesn't come without side-effects.
Gonorrhea is the second most common disease in the U.S. that must be reported to health authorities; it is responsible for 800,000 new infections every year, according to Bloomberg.
New research has found two new combination of treatments to be almost 100 percent effective in treating the sexually transmitted disease, but the CDC does not recommend them because of their side effects.
A study observed 400 people between the ages of 15 and 60 who had not yet been treated for the infection. The patients used a "pill azithromycin with either the injectable drug gentamicin or another pill gemifloxaci," to treat the infection.
About half of the study participants took gentamicin and azithromycin while the other half received gemifloxicin and azithromycin. One third of the overall patients experienced nausea and diarrhea.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not recommend the treatments because of the gastrointestinal issues they cause. Injectable ceftriaxone is still the recommended treatment for gonorrhea.
Before the new trial ceftriaxone was the only treatment used for the infection, USA Today reported.
"It's very scary when you have only one effective regimen," Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said.
"This is an encouraging development, but we're still working in a very discouraging field," Gail Bolan of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, according to Bloomberg. "This is not the solution we're looking for. It's a good fall-back."
The newly tested treatments were created by combining drugs known to fight bacteria (known as gram-negative) similar to gonorrhea.
"We're being creative," Bolan said. "We're discouraged we're not further along with better options."
Antibiotics don't generate enough money for pharmaceutical companies to want to support the development of these treatments.
A "proposed legislation called the Generating Antibiotic Incentives Now act" hoped to give larger pharmaceutical companies incentive to support such research, but the proposal was turned down in 2011.
"As an infectious disease doctor, it's hard to believe in my career, I've gone to having diseases I can't treat," Bolan said. "We've got some challenges ahead."
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