As gonorrhoea becomes increasingly resistant to many antibiotics, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new drug to treat the disease, offering fresh hope against a sexually transmitted infection that is becoming harder to cure.
The FDA announced on Sunday that it has approved zoliflodacin as a single-dose oral treatment for uncomplicated gonorrhoea infections of the urogenital tract.
Zoliflodacin is taken once and comes in the form of granules that dissolve in water, making it easier to administer compared to injectable treatments.
The bacterium that causes gonorrhoea has developed resistance to several commonly used antibiotics over the years, reducing the effectiveness of many former first-line therapies and raising global public health concerns.
In Malawi, health authorities have also been monitoring drug-resistant gonorrhoea. The Ministry of Health and Sanitation has previously said that while resistance to some antibiotics is increasing, the situation has not yet reached the level of a so-called “super strain” that is extremely difficult to treat.
However, the ministry has warned that continued misuse of antibiotics could accelerate resistance.
