WHO Warns Antibiotic-Resistant Gonorrhoea Rising Sharply Across Multiple Countries

By Health Reporter

Gonorrhoea is becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics, with resistance to key drugs rising sharply between 2022 and 2024, the World Health Organization warned.

Resistance to ceftriaxone, a primary antibiotic for treating the sexually transmitted infection, jumped from 0.8% to 5% during that period, while resistance to cefixime surged from 1.7% to 11%, according to WHO’s Enhanced Gonococcal Antimicrobial Surveillance Programme.

“This global effort is essential to tracking, preventing, and responding to drug-resistant gonorrhoea and to protecting public health worldwide,” said Dr. Tereza Kasaeva, director of WHO’s Department for HIV, TB, Hepatitis & STIs.

Resistant strains have been detected in more countries, with Cambodia and Vietnam reporting the highest resistance rates.Resistance to ciprofloxacin reached 95%, while azithromycin resistance remained stable at 4%.

The data release coincides with World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week.

In 2024, 12 countries across five WHO regions provided data, up from four countries in 2022.

The countries — Brazil, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malawi, the Philippines, Qatar, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand, Uganda and Vietnam — reported 3,615 gonorrhoea cases.

Over half of symptomatic cases in men occurred in WHO Western Pacific Region countries, including the Philippines with 28%, Vietnam with 12%, Cambodia with 9% and Indonesia with 3%. African region countries accounted for 28% of cases.

The median patient age was 27 years. Among cases, 20% were men who have sex with men and 42% reported multiple sexual partners within 30 days.

Eight percent reported recent antibiotic use and 19% had traveled recently.

WHO advanced genomic surveillance in 2024, sequencing nearly 3,000 samples from eight countries.

Studies on new treatments including zoliflodacin and gepotidacin were conducted by WHO’s Collaborating Centre on AMR in STI in Sweden.

Brazil, Côte d’Ivoire and Qatar joined the program in 2024. India will begin reporting data in 2025 under its National AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Control Programme.

WHO cited limited funding, incomplete reporting and gaps in data from women as ongoing challenges.

The organization called for urgent investment in national surveillance systems to expand global monitoring.