--- title: CDC: Study Warns of Drug-Resistant Gonorrhea description: The forthcoming study raises the prospect of higher rates of the sexually transmitted disease if a traditional treatment is used canonical: https://time.com/22179/gonorrhea-rates-cdc/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-12T20:30:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T06:44:06.114Z article:section: Health og:title: CDC: Study Warns of Drug-Resistant Gonorrhea og:description: The forthcoming study raises the prospect of higher rates of the sexually transmitted disease if a traditional treatment is used og:url: https://time.com/22179/gonorrhea-rates-cdc/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: CDC: Study Warns of Drug-Resistant Gonorrhea twitter:description: The forthcoming study raises the prospect of higher rates of the sexually transmitted disease if a traditional treatment is used twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Study Warns of Drug-Resistant Gonorrhea > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=054f3ba7-92db-43fd-9f4d-5c9711f5e741&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Mar 12, 2014 8:30 PM UTC by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Mar 12, 2014 8:30 PM UTC Rates of gonorrhea are [higher](http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/20/4/13-1288%5Farticle.htm#results) when more people carry drug-resistant strains of the sexually transmitted disease, according to a forthcoming report by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. The study, which will be published in the April 2014 issue of the Emerging Infectious Diseases journal, examined the rates of gonorrhea in 17 cities over 16 years, between 1991 and 2006\. The study found that although gonorrhea was more prevalent in cities with lower resistance to drugs, in cities where there was a higher resistance, rates of gonorrhea were elevated. There are an estimated 820,000 cases of gonorrhea in the United States each year, according to the CDC. Resistance to antimicrobial drugs used for treatment, namely cephalosporin, has been increasing in the U.S. over the past several years. The CDC currently recommends two doses of antibiotics when treating the sexually transmitted disease. Sarah Kidd, a medical epidemiologist at the CDC who was not involved in the study, told [_The Verge_](http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/12/5500246/gonorrhea-is-about-to-become-impossible-to-treat) that “the emergence and spread of cephalosporin-resistant gonorrhea in the United States appears imminent.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/22179/gonorrhea-rates-cdc/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/22179/gonorrhea-rates-cdc/"},"headline":"Study Warns of Drug-Resistant Gonorrhea","datePublished":"2014-03-12T20:30:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:44:06.114Z","description":"The forthcoming study raises the prospect of higher rates of the sexually transmitted disease if a traditional treatment is used","url":"https://time.com/22179/gonorrhea-rates-cdc/","keywords":["STDs","gonorrhea"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/stds/","name":"STDs"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/22179/gonorrhea-rates-cdc/","name":"Study Warns of Drug-Resistant Gonorrhea"}}]}] ```