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Gonorrhea As the Next Superbug

WrongSizeGlass writes "Reuters is reporting that Gonorrhea risks becoming a superbug: 'The sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea risks becoming a drug-resistant "superbug" if doctors do not devise new ways of treating it, a leading sexual health expert said.'"

51 of 456 comments (clear)

  1. I've got the cure by TheKidWho · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've got the cure!

    It's called a condom and not screwing nasty hoes!

    1. Re:I've got the cure by McGiraf · · Score: 5, Funny

      You must live a dull life.

    2. Re:I've got the cure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      My cure is posting on slashdot.

    3. Re:I've got the cure by TheKidWho · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Maybe, but at least I don't have gonorrhea!

    4. Re:I've got the cure by t0qer · · Score: 4, Funny

      Where are these "Nasty Ho's" that you speak of? This dry spell has gone on so long that even knotholes in fences are starting to look good.

    5. Re:I've got the cure by Aranykai · · Score: 3, Funny

      You must be new here.

      --
      If sharing a song makes you a pirate, what do I have to share to be a ninja?
    6. Re:I've got the cure by MikeFM · · Score: 4, Funny

      So get married and go without. You get to take the wrapper off but you have to eat the same candy every day.

      --
      At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
    7. Re:I've got the cure by blackraven14250 · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's not a cure, it's a prevention mechanism.

    8. Re:I've got the cure by Jurily · · Score: 5, Funny

      a leading sexual health expert

      Translation: virgin.

    9. Re:I've got the cure by rubycodez · · Score: 4, Informative

      wrong, throat gonorrhea is quite common, and transmissible to your penis via oral sex.

    10. Re:I've got the cure by Jedi+Alec · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Good plain abstinence goes along way.

      If you want an exciting life, go skydiving with your prospective girlfriend instead of s3x0r. You will live a lot longer and have a lot more fun.

      Uhuh...or just pop down to the local clinic, have some blood and urine samples taken and wait a few days. Tada! Either there's nothing wrong with either of you and hence no reason to avoid s3x0ring except choice, religion or fear of conception or the tests will show up positive for something and you're glad you found before stuff started to fall off/rot your brain/etc.

      The numbers don't lie. Trying to pretend teenagers will not have sex does not have sex. Teaching abstinence only and restricting access to birth control methods such as is often seen in fundamentally religious communities leads to more teenage pregnancies, abortions and STD's transmitted, not less.

      --

      People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
    11. Re:I've got the cure by itsthebin · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's called a condom (..)

      Just one? That won't get you very far...

      correct you need 2 - with some chilli paste between them.

      that way one of you will know if you develop a leak :D

      --
      ...I obey the laws of physics....
    12. Re:I've got the cure by ArsenneLupin · · Score: 5, Funny

      Go back to church dickhead.

      And you think priests don't have Gonorrhea?

    13. Re:I've got the cure by VanGarrett · · Score: 3, Informative

      Teaching practices need to promote the ideal circumstances, and count on the opposite. In the case of sexual education, promote abstinence, explain the array of potential consequences (which can occur despite the use of condoms), and make sure they know what their contraceptive options are, as well as how to go about getting them-- After all, even if they don't take this new found knowledge and immediately go out to copulate, this information will still be useful when they get married.

      Really, in a perfect world, the responsibility for teaching children about sex would fall squarely on the parents, but we just can't count on the parents doing that part of their job. Maybe it's because we have horrible parents who are so bad at their tasks because their own parents were no good at it, or maybe it's because our culture regards sex as a generally impolite subject which parents are generally content to ignore. One way or another, we've failed on the whole subject for a couple of generations now, and the consequence is that each successive generation is slightly more loose than the one that came before (on the other hand, I'm not certain that the current youth is quite as promiscuous as the "FREE LOVE" generation of the 60's, but then, I've only born distant witness to the younger of the two). One way or another, something needs to be fixed.

    14. Re:I've got the cure by Thing+1 · · Score: 3, Funny

      You can also buy fences on Craigslist.

      --
      I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
    15. Re:I've got the cure by infinite9 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I sincerely hope you're being sarcastic. Religions perceive sex as a necessary evil, to be used for procreation only. Actually, most religions go even further and condone the concept of love (and by extension sex) only if it subject to some kind of religious regulation mechanism, because anything else gnaws away at the oppressive stranglehold religion has over everyday life. In order to exist, religion needs to have a monopoly on everything fulfilling and meaningful.

      I can only speak as a Christian. And from my perspective, you have no idea what you're talking about. The list of activities that the vast majority of Christian woman won't do is very short. The main restriction is having to wait until marriage. After that, there are virtually no restrictions at all. Any restrictions there are have to to with respecting each other and making each other happy.

      Sex addiction is not a recognized medical condition, it's a catchphrase invented by tabloid media designed to appeal to stupid people.

      I disagree. There's a neurochemical hit humans get from sex. Some people get addicted to this. Most people don't. Just because you're not an alcoholic, it doesn't mean there aren't any alcoholics.

      And until you found "the right person", you are required to act as if you're a sexless, joyless, dishonest zombie. You're not even allowed to find out if that person is actually sexually compatible, until ít's too late. Oh, I forget "the right person" has to meet certain requirements of gender and, in many cases, social status. Otherwise, they're obviously not the right person. And once you have declared one person to be "the right person", you can never change your mind, or an invisible sky tyrant will crush your immortal soul for all eternity. Sounds awesome.

      There's two things wrong with this attitude. First, I believe it's unrealistic to expect people to wait until their 20s or 30s to get married. If people were getting married right out of high school, it would be far easier to wait until you were married. It was like this in the past and worked. Our present society is broken. And don't try to tell me that 18 year old kids haven't experienced enough to know who to get married to. It's not like the divorce rate is heavily skewed toward young people. I'd rather my kid get married at 18 and get divorced 6 years later than have a different girlfriend every 6 months for 6 years. Which one is far less likely to get an STD?

      And secondly, how difficult is it to have many explicit conversations about this before you get married? What do you like or not like? What's acceptable behavior and what isn't? How often is too much or not enough? The wedding night doesn't have to be a surprise if you don't want it to be.

      --
      Disconnect your television. Do your own research. Draw your own conclusions. They're probably lying. Don't be a sheep.
  2. What? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Gonorrhea? I thought we had that one licked.

    Thank god we all agree that teaching adolescent kids about condoms is a good idea, or this could get really become a big problem.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
    1. Re:What? by blankaBrew · · Score: 5, Funny

      I doubt that this would be an issue for the average slashdot reader.

    2. Re:What? by ZekoMal · · Score: 4, Insightful
      I smell sarcasm; in my school 90% of the kids firmly believed that abstinence was the best preventive measure, but decided that meant having boatloads of oral sex without condoms. 8% thought that they didn't need condoms, and the remaining 2% were split up by reasonable people and virginal nerds...

      Maybe we can get some well needed crowd thinning.

    3. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Gonorrhea? I thought we had that one licked.

      Well there is your problem: DONT LICK ANYONE WITH GONORRHEA.

    4. Re:What? by LordLucless · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Abstinence is the best (well, most effective) preventative measure. It's just that, like the pill and condoms, it fails when people don't actually use it. What your anecdote shows is that there should probably be a greater emphasis placed on STDs and the possibility of infection via oral sex in current sex ed.

      --
      Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
    5. Re:What? by Nemyst · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Abstinence is like communism: in a perfect world, it'd work.

    6. Re:What? by LordLucless · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No. Abstinence is 100% effective. If you say you're using abstinence as a birth-control method, and then go have sex, then that's not abstinence.

      It's analagous to saying you use condoms, but then don't bother putting them on. That doesn't say anything about the efficacy of condoms, it just says your lying about your birth control method.

      What you (probably) mean to say is that abstinence is a hard method to keep to, and that most people fail. That while it might be an effective birth control method, it's not a suitable method for most people. Abstinence works fine, but horny people have trouble using it. Same way as how the pill works fairly well, but forgetful people would have trouble using it. Problem is, abstinence is being sold to teenagers, who are generally not inclined towards self-control.

      --
      Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
    7. Re:What? by Decollete · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Saying abstinence is 100% effective is like saying window shopping is a 100% discount. Sure you avoided STDs/spending money but its considerably less enjoyable.

    8. Re:What? by ppanon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually the GPs post is right on, both fail because the practices are incompatible with human nature. Communism can work in small communities where there are significant advantages from altruistic cooperation and interpersonal bonds to discourage abuse (see most primitive hunter-gatherer cultures with communal child-raising and food production), but breaks down in larger environments where gaming the system for personal benefit becomes easier because there is a degree of anonymity which facilitates exploitation of others. Abstinence theoretically is the most effective method of birth control and STD prevention, but it ignores that the urge for sexual reproduction is one of the strongest and most basic drives of the human hormonal and neural systems.

      --
      Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde. - Voltaire
  3. On the bright side by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    No one on slashdot will ever be exposed.

    1. Re:On the bright side by blackraven14250 · · Score: 4, Funny

      More accurately, gonorrhea doesn't have the proper stats to beat the mommamonster on level 1.

  4. Let us clap by Kitkoan · · Score: 4, Funny

    For the Claps big return

    --
    Attention... all grammer nazi"s! Is they're anything; wrong with: my post,
  5. Socially Fucked by cosm · · Score: 5, Funny

    Perhaps in the eyes of the overlords, or perhaps evolution, STDs are a "feature not a bug" situation, a form population control. Reducing numbers through the attempt to increase numbers. I wonder if we should start including a Trojan constant in our population growth and decay models. Combined with the social network clusterfuck, perhaps we need a digital vaccine. Hope your not allergic to PCillin.

    While on this line of thought, I would liken using Norton to wearing 8 condoms, all which having been poked with a needle, and Spybot Search & Destroy being the "Pull-Out" contraceptive method, and disconnecting from the internet altogether being like a hysterectomy. Unfortunately, we can't forget Live OneCare, which is like wrapping it with toilet paper, drinking a fifth of tequila, taking two viagras, and then wandering around Mexico City.

    What was my point again?

    --
    'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
  6. Here's an idea by Vyse+of+Arcadia · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Howsabout people stop having unprotected sex with people with gonorrhea? I realize that people may lie about not having it or something similar, but one's policy should be use a rubber unless one is very, very certain it's safe.

    1. Re:Here's an idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      A lot of people don't realize they have been sleeping with someone who has been sleeping with someone else.

      I can't even count the number of people I know that are cheating, or have been cheated on. And all these people will think they are all faithful and will not use a condom, but one of them will get something and pass it along to everyone else.

      My wife cheated on me once, but I was far more upset that she came back to me and didn't use a condom after god-knows-what the bitch did or didn't use with the other guy.

  7. Re:Exercise some self-discipline and keep... by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 4, Funny

    Speaking as one who regularly succumbs to propositions from strange attractive sexually promiscuous women, I would rather be gorgeous and infected than germ-free and ugly.

  8. An STD the next super-bug? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Clearly, the geeks shall inherit the Earth.

  9. Re:Exercise some self-discipline and keep... by Alarindris · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Do you really think it's self-righteous, hedonistic, and narcissistic to have sex? It's how you got here.

    Live a little!

  10. Re:Exercise some self-discipline and keep... by eln · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sure, and hormone-soaked teenagers whose brains are still trying to develop good impulse control always think rationally and choose abstinence when a member of their preferred sex is hot to trot for them. This is why abstinence-only education has been such a rousing success everywhere it's been tried.

  11. Re:Needed crouwd thinning?? by ZekoMal · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Please; don't throw around Fox News memes. I mean, if I wanted to believe that the majority of the world was killing itself because of health care it's had, I'd go ahead and let Glenn Beck talk for me too.

    Stupid people should die. But if that were true, Fox News would be out of business, wouldn't it?

    Besides, it's not my job to demand people die. Are you saying that you want people to die just so you don't have to pay the same goddamn premiums you already pay for private healthcare?

  12. Re:Darwin Or Nature's Reset Button? by interkin3tic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    On the one hand, if you're playing around without wearing a condom, then you're a Darwin Award.

    You heard it here first on slashdot, folks: a claim that unprotected sex will lead to natural selection AGAINST you for that behavior.

    I have to agree that if we all don't use condoms, that will definitely cause the extinction of the human race.

  13. Re:Needed crouwd thinning?? by Yosho-sama · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Here is a take on your intellect: You are a fucking retard. Here is the same situation, without health care.

    Some asshole sleeps around without a condom, and because they do not have health care, they do not get it treated and spread it to more people, one of whom is your mom.

    or

    Some asshole sleeps around without a condom, gets gonorrhea, and starts taking antibiotics without medical consultation and so on and so forth until the disease becomes drug-resistant AS THE ARTICLE IS DISCUSSING RIGHT NOW.

    or

    Some asshole gets a physical at the doctor, finds out about the consequences of having sex without a condom and sees some lovely pictures of herpes/chlamydia/gonorrhea and the asshole starts using a condom from then on and the spread of disease is stopped at a lower cost to society than having X amount of people needing treatment for STIs.

    Grow the fuck up, biology and disease prevention have nothing to do with politics.

    --
    My kingdom for a donkey!
  14. Re:Mod Parent Up!!! by cosm · · Score: 4, Funny

    Mexico City.

    --
    'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
  15. Re:Darwin Or Nature's Reset Button? by tsotha · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And if the people are listening to a religious restriction, saying condom use is against their faith, now we're back to the Darwin angle.

    I wish people would stop peddling this ignorant crap. The Catholic church is against condoms, yes, but it's also against extramarital sex. If you're really an observant Catholic the lack of condoms isn't going to increase your risk of contracting STDs.

    Catholics having extramarital sex aren't acting within the tenants of their faith, and if they don't wear condoms it's because nobody likes to wear condoms, not because of any church teaching.

  16. Re:Exercise some self-discipline and keep... by eln · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There have been several studies (third question in the interview, feel free to google for more information) showing that the areas of the brain linked to complex decision making and impulse control are still under development in the adolescent brain, and in fact continue to develop into the 20s. These findings may explain, in part, why teenagers are more prone to risky behavior (such as, say, unprotected sex) than older people. In short, studies indicate that hormone-soaked teenage brains do NOT have all the physiological necessities for impulse control.

  17. You're not far off, actually! by WheelDweller · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A few weeks back Slashdot ran a story about MRSA and other 'superbugs' being fought in (I believe it was) Finland.

    The cool thing about it is, for at least a decade they've been using the same level of sanitation as 50 years ago: steam-cleaning the floors and walls, not using HAND SANITIZER all the time, and letting the place remain a bit "dirtier" than our own hospitals. THEY HAVE THE LOWEST NUMBER OF SUCH CASES.

    It makes sense; let the lesser-bugs go, kill with dumber, more-trusted ways that kill ALL the bugs or none at all, and the superbugs have to mate with lesser-bugs. This bleeds out the specialty features.

    Meanwhile, everytime someone shakes hands in America, they hit it again with the sanitizer. It's just a never-ending "Germ Olympics" where only the strongest survive.

    We really need to consider 'alternative' means like this, and I think you've hit the penis on the head! :>

    --
    --- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
  18. Re:Needed crouwd thinning?? by dunkelfalke · · Score: 4, Informative

    Wrong. Antibiotics are there to kill off all the non-resistant strains until the amount of bacteria low enough so the immune system can take care of the rest, this way preventing that the resistant strains survive.
    If an antibiotic treatment suddenly stops before all non-resistant strains were killed, the resistant strains survive and multiply and soon become dominant strains.

    --
    "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
  19. Re:Needed crouwd thinning?? by Hognoxious · · Score: 3, Insightful

    1) You list China as a country with "ideal" healthcare?

    No, the *map* showed China as country with *universal* healthcare.

    A country where they inject formaldehyde into a baby if it's a second pregnancy?

    I suspect they aren't trying to cure it of anything, so that'd be a social/political problem rather than a problem with the medical system.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  20. Re:Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not very hard.

    That's what she said

  21. Re:Darwin Or Nature's Reset Button? by Foobar+of+Borg · · Score: 3, Funny

    Perhaps not tenet, but certainly you might be within a tenant.

    Well, depending on how the tenant pays the rent...

  22. probiotics for the vagina by nido · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When I was at the Natural Food store the other day, I noticed a probiotic in the refridgerator display called femdophilus. This product has two strains of lactic acid-producing bacteria that are well suited to colonizing the vagina.

    Here's another one: http://www.gynophilus.ca/

    I have an anecdote about conventional medical thought on bacteria, fungi, and the vagina. I took a late trip home a few months back, and Loveline came on the radio. I listened fairly regularly a long time ago, so I 'tuned in' for old times' sake.

    One caller asked Dr. Drew what he could do about his new girlfriend's horrible vaginal odor. Dr. Drew & Crew were like, "what can you do? Bacterial Vaginosis is hard to treat. Don't say anything."

    A later caller wanted to know what she could do about recurrent yeast infections. She'd tried any number of pharmaceutical anti-fungal medications, but the yeast didn't give up.

    Knowing a bit about so-called "alternative" medical technology, I picked up the cell phone and called. While I was on hold, another caller came on to say that she had good luck with dealing with teh yeast by using only polyester underwear.

    I asked Dr. Drew if it was safe to use yogurt in the vagina. He was like, "sure, but why bother? It's not going to help. These people have tried the most powerful antifungals available, and still have problems. What can yogurt do that drugs cannot?" (this was his sentiment, if not the exact wording).

    While Yogurt is a sub-optimal probiotic solution, at least it's getting to the root of the problem. Yeast infections and bacterial vaginosis are caused when "bad" bacterial and fungi are able to establish themselves. No matter how many of these "bad" bacteria/fungi the antibiotic/antifungal is able to take out (99.9999% is not enough), the survivors will be able to quickly reestablish themselves once the pills are stopped.

    In alternative medical thinking, "good" bacteria are used to coat the digestive system / skin / vagina with a protective film. When "bad" bacteria come along, there's no room available, so they can't establish a colony.

    I don't know if there's been any research about probiotics & gonorrhea. But it'd be an interesting study...

    here's an article about probiotics & Urinary tract infections: Specific probiotic strains are effective for genitourinary infections, Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, Nov, 2006 by Alan R. Gaby

    --
    Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
    www.teslabox.com
    1. Re:probiotics for the vagina by demonlapin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The only interesting drugs we have access to are depressants and stimulants (and the stimulants are watched much more closely than the depressants). If you want psychedelics, you'd be far better served by getting a PhD in organic chemistry.

      BTW, is your friend an anesthesiologist? I've always contended that the relatively high rate of drug abuse among anesthesiologists is a result of high-functioning drug users making a rational choice to go into the specialty with the keys to the candy store, and some of them getting in over their head.

    2. Re:probiotics for the vagina by iroll · · Score: 4, Informative

      This is not "alternative medical thinking." Alternative Medical Thinking would be making a homeopathic yogurt dilution and believing that the spirit of the yogurt was imprinted on the solvent. Doctors (like Dr. Drew) are professionals, just like programmers. They can be wrong, or behind the times, or attention-grabbing without actually being representative of the state of their field.

      Treating and encouraging your natural bacterial flora is mainstream medicine, and the yogurt trick for encouraging health "down there" is something a lot of doctors will pass along. I can't speak to your personal experience, but anecdotes =/= mainstream medicine. Your family physician will probably also tell you to eat some yogurt when they give you antibiotics to clear up some strep throat or another nasty bacteria, because it'll help replenish the good bacteria in your gut that you have been eliminating, and keep you from getting a monster case of the runs.

      And there are the studies on GM bacteria mouthwashes, to colonize your mouth with bacteria that out-compete your old, cavity-causing flora with something safer. And the studies that show that while we've generally eliminated the bacteria that cause stomach ulcers, we've also caused some downstream problems because those bacteria were part of a balancing act in the ecosystem in there. The bacterial flora are a hot areas of research.

      I'm not a doctor, but I have a degree in bioengineering, and I have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express.

      --
      Repetition does not transform a lie into the truth. - FDR
  23. Technically ... by DrYak · · Score: 3, Insightful

    My philosophy when it comes to infections - hit them hard and don't let up until they are dead, dead, dead!

    Technically, the proper medical procedure is, indeed :
    - to use the lowest powerful antibiotic (if penicillin works, use it, damn !) and only if needed (most cold are caused by viruses and don't need any)
    - make it really, really, really clear to the patient, that he/she had to take the antibiotics all the way until the end of the cure, until all the bacteria are clearly and definitely dead. And not stop abruptly as soon as he/she feels better.

    That slows down the evolution of super-bugs.

    (and in addition to what you said :
    - most antibiotics kill all bacteria indiscriminately, not only bugs, but the normal flora : which perturbs some normal function and leave the place free for bad yeast to rush in. So always explain to the patient which food contain good probiotics to compensate (like some yogurts) and prescribe some probiotics too (usually some good yeast) )

    That's what we're taught in our medical education.
    The only problems comes into getting the correct choice of the lowest denomination antibiotics.
    - On one hand, hospitals have proven and tested recommendation (based on tests against resistance, etc.) And might even have some quick tests to predict resistance (so even when super bugs become prevalent, you can still detect which don't need the super-drug).
    - On the other hand, pharmaceutical companies have an agenda to push for newer (and still patented) drugs.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  24. Re:Technically by Custard+Horse · · Score: 4, Funny

    Does anyone want my other sandwich? I'm not hungry..