The oral antibiotic most widely used to treat gonorrhoea – cefixime – is no longer recommended as the first choice for treatment in the UK. Tests show decreasing susceptibility to it, according to figures published by the HPA.
In some cases the decreased susceptibility has led to treatment failure in patients. Because of this alarming decrease in the effectiveness of cefixme over the past five years, sexual health doctors are now being recommended to use a combination of two drugs – ceftriaxone– a more powerful antibiotic than cefixime, which is delivered by injection, and azithromycin, which is given orally.
