What is it about?
Recent developments in comprehending immunity to Neisseria gonorrhoeae now raise the prospect that vaccination against gonorrhea might become feasible, although much work remains to be done to translate these findings to humans.
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Why is it important?
The worldwide incidence of gonorrhea is estimated to be 78 million new infections per year, and the disease burden falls mainly on women due to the damage inflicted on the female reproductive tract. The continuing emergence of resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae to most currently available antibiotics and lack of new drugs in the development pipeline raise the concern that gonorrhea might become untreatable. Therefore an effective vaccine will become necessary for the prevention and control of this disease in future.
Perspectives
Gonorrhea remains an all too common disease even in developed nations, but is especially prevalent where health care resources are lacking. Like other sexually transmitted diseases it is often regarded as a distasteful topic, which complicates control measures. While several scientific hurdles remain, these can be overcome given adequate funding, which in turn depends on socio-political will to address the problem.
Professor Michael W Russell
University at Buffalo Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Could vaccination against Neisseria gonorrhoeae be on the horizon?, Future Microbiology, March 2018, Future Medicine,
DOI: 10.2217/fmb-2017-0262.
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