CDC releases revised treatment guidelines for STDs

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released a number of updated recommendations for treating sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

The agency now warns physicians that treating gonorrhea with fluoroquinolones, a broad-spectrum antibiotic, may be ineffective and contribute to increased gonorrheal resistance to such medications.

Currently, the CDC recommends using cephalosporins to treat gonorrhea, a disease which it says has consistently developed a tolerance for widely used antimicrobial drugs.

A similar resistance is surging in the Treponema pallidum bacteria, the microorganism responsible for syphilis. The agency has updated its treatment recommendations to exclude the use of azithromyacin for advanced syphilis infections, which may quickly become immune to the antibiotic.

For those who believe they have contracted either disease, online testing services may provide effective and private sexual health screening.

In 2009, the CDC recorded more than 300,000 cases of gonorrhea and 13,000 cases of syphilis.