Targeting Core Groups for Gonorrhoea Control
Targeting Core Groups for Gonorrhoea Control
Objective We aimed to outline why core groups should be targeted in Neisseria gonorrhoeae control and suggest several important and timely interventions to target core groups while highly resistant strains are spreading.
Methods Core group definition, feasibility and impact of gonorrhoea core group interventions as well as gonorrhoea resistance development have been reviewed in the paper.
Results Core group interventions have proven effective in gonorrhoea control in the past but are compromised by the spread of highly resistant strains.
Conclusions Worldwide functional Gonorrhoea Antimicrobial Surveillance Program, better screening and better treatment programmes are needed. Prevention through condom promotion aimed at core groups remains essential. More specific treatment guidance for low-income and middle-income countries without resistance data is required in the meantime to achieve a better use of antibiotics.
Gonoccocal infections, a major cause of acute illness, infertility, long-term disability and death, represent one-fifth of the new cases of curable sexually transmitted infections (STIs) that occur globally every year. In 2005, the WHO estimated that 88 million new gonorrhoea cases occurred worldwide that year in adults aged 15–49 years and that there were 31 million prevalent cases at any time of the year. Some key populations with high-risk behaviour, or core groups, play an important role in the spread and persistence of gonorrhoea and in the emergence and dissemination of antimicrobial-resistant gonorrhoea. With the rapid and continuous emergence of resistance to antibiotics, gonorrhoea has the potential to become untreatable in the near future. We thus aimed to outline why core groups should be targeted in gonorrhoea control, to illustrate the feasibility and the impact of core group interventions and to suggest several important and timely interventions to target core groups while highly resistant strains are spreading.
Abstract and Introduction
Abstract
Objective We aimed to outline why core groups should be targeted in Neisseria gonorrhoeae control and suggest several important and timely interventions to target core groups while highly resistant strains are spreading.
Methods Core group definition, feasibility and impact of gonorrhoea core group interventions as well as gonorrhoea resistance development have been reviewed in the paper.
Results Core group interventions have proven effective in gonorrhoea control in the past but are compromised by the spread of highly resistant strains.
Conclusions Worldwide functional Gonorrhoea Antimicrobial Surveillance Program, better screening and better treatment programmes are needed. Prevention through condom promotion aimed at core groups remains essential. More specific treatment guidance for low-income and middle-income countries without resistance data is required in the meantime to achieve a better use of antibiotics.
Introduction
Gonoccocal infections, a major cause of acute illness, infertility, long-term disability and death, represent one-fifth of the new cases of curable sexually transmitted infections (STIs) that occur globally every year. In 2005, the WHO estimated that 88 million new gonorrhoea cases occurred worldwide that year in adults aged 15–49 years and that there were 31 million prevalent cases at any time of the year. Some key populations with high-risk behaviour, or core groups, play an important role in the spread and persistence of gonorrhoea and in the emergence and dissemination of antimicrobial-resistant gonorrhoea. With the rapid and continuous emergence of resistance to antibiotics, gonorrhoea has the potential to become untreatable in the near future. We thus aimed to outline why core groups should be targeted in gonorrhoea control, to illustrate the feasibility and the impact of core group interventions and to suggest several important and timely interventions to target core groups while highly resistant strains are spreading.