Drug-resistant ‘super gonorrhea’ spreading, billboards warn

Doctors are alarmed over a new strain of gonorrhea — a common sexually transmitted infection — that is almost incurable.

And gonorrhea rates continue to climb: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 1.6 million new cases each year, and half of those are resistant to antibiotics.

To clap back against the scourge of drug-resistant gonorrhea, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation recently started an ambitious public information campaign.

Billboards across America now warn of a “GONORRHEA ALERT!” in letters several feet high, with an image of a cruise ship hitting an iceberg.

The ad reminds people that with icebergs and STIs, “the risk is much larger than what you see on the surface,” Mike McVicker-Weaver, an AHF regional director, told NBC News.

The billboards have appeared in 16 states and 36 cities across the US.

“It’s a call to action for the individual to think about gonorrhea, to have conversations about gonorrhea with their partners,” McVicker-Weaver added.

The massive ad campaign comes months after doctors in Massachusetts reported two cases of “super gonorrhea” that were resistant to almost every drug available to cure the infection.

That tough strain of gonorrhea had been found in Asia and Europe but hadn’t been seen in America until this year.

“This particular strain has been circulating around the world, so it was only a matter of time before it would hit the US,” Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of public health at the University of Southern California, told CNN.

“It’s a reminder that gonorrhea is becoming increasingly resistant, increasingly hard to treat. We don’t have any new antibiotics,” he added.

There once were several antibiotics that could cure gonorrhea, including penicillin, ciprofloxacin (Cipro) and fluoroquinolone drugs.

But over the years, the bacteria that causes gonorrhea, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, has evolved to resist those and other drugs.

Now there’s only one drug left — an injection of ceftriaxone — to cure “super gonorrhea” and no one is certain how much longer that drug will work.

“We haven’t had new antibiotics to treat gonorrhea for years, and we really need a different treatment strategy,” Klausner said.

Gonorrhea is spread by vaginal, anal or oral sex, according to the CDC, and a person with the infection might not have any symptoms at all.

Those who do might have a burning sensation when urinating, abdominal pain, discharge and bleeding or itching from the vagina, anus or penis.

Doctors can diagnose gonorrhea through a urine test or a swab of the affected area. They may also test for other STIs at the same time.

The latest strain of gonorrhea isn’t the only superbug that’s worrying public health experts: Candida auris, a potentially deadly and drug-resistant fungus, is spreading rapidly in hospitals across the US.

And researchers have discovered that diseases like MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), vancomycin-resistant enterococci and other superbugs can be spread between humans and their pets.