'Sex Superbug' Cases in Hawaii Misleading, Individuals Not Infected with Strain

First Posted: May 07, 2013 11:39 AM EDT
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The "sex superbug" that officially swarmed the media this week, as a sexually transmitted strain of gonorrhea that's found to be worse than AIDS, is now confirmed to have not infected two individuals in Hawaii, despite contrary information floating around online.

The health concern has been increasing as doctors warn this new strain, known as HO41, has indicated a resistance to ceftriaxone, a treatment involving an injectable antibiotic reserved for cases of gonorrhea that have failed to respond to first-line treatments.

Although alarming, it turns out that most fears regarding the HO41 strain on American shores were overstated and all-together, inaccurate. 

For isntance, both the Associated Press and NBC News are among some of the news outlets that have rescined their information, explaining that the drug restistant form of gonorrhea found in those cases was a different antibiotic resistant strain: 

"But the Hawaii cases, first discovered in May 2011, were actually a different strain, H11S8, resistant to a different drug, the antibiotic azithromycin, state health officials confirmed. That's been a known problem for a while, Workowski added. The AP later withdrew the inaccurate report."

Yet, public officials are caught in a complicated situations. As they do not want to further inaccurate information, they also want individuals to take the treat of the antibiotic resistant strain seriously. 

In actuality, not only has the sex superbug not spread to the U.S., the infection has not been reported worldwide since being detected in a Japanese sex worker back in 2009.

Public health officials explain that the impetus is not so much to urge caution in individuals, but to sound the alarm about using stronger than necessary antibiotics to treat gonorrhea in order to preserve the effectiveness of ceftriaxone.

According to experts, the sex superbug could prove deadly if the trend of antibiotic resistance continues.

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