Gonorrhea superbug located

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is alerting people of a new antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea superbug discovered in Canada.

Scientists discovered that the strain resists all currently available treatments, and health officials warn that the new H041 strain may turn a once simple and easily treatable sexually transmitted disease into a pandemic.

Gonorrhea is also known as “the clap.” It is one of the most common STDs in the world and can lead to infertility. It can also increase likelihood of HIV infection and can cause death in rare cases.

This gonorrhea evolution appears to have been in the works for some time. For years, scientists have been observing resistance to different treatments, and they have moved on to different antibiotic options.

“Gonorrhea has progressively developed resistance to the antibiotic drugs prescribed to treat it,” the CDC said in a statement.

In 1993, the medical community recommended Cipro and cephalosporins to knock out the infection, but by the late 1990s and early 2000s, scientists started finding cases that were resistant tot he drugs. By 2006, nearly 14 percent of cases studied were resistant to the two antibiotics, and in 2007, the CDC recommended against using Cipro to treat gonorrhea.

In 2009, 23.5 percent of gonorrhea cases studied were resistant to penicillin, tetracycline, Cipro, or some combination of these antibiotics.

Cephalosporin antibiotics remain effective, and the CDC has not reported any cases of resistance in the country yet, but the news out of Canada has medical experts gearing up.