--- title: WHO: Some Gonorrhea Cases Now Untreatable description: Some cases of the sexually transmitted infection gonorrhea are now untreatable due to resistance to antibiotics, according to WHO canonical: https://time.com/4848887/gonorrhea-untreatable-antibiotic-resistance/ author: Catherine Trautwein article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-07T14:35:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:28:15.835Z article:section: Health og:title: Some Cases of Gonorrhea Are Now Untreatable og:description: According to the World Health Organization og:url: https://time.com/4848887/gonorrhea-untreatable-antibiotic-resistance/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5585fe46cc9bae82/6988d4d222fb8572b1e21e16/gonorrhea.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Gonorrhea og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Some Cases of Gonorrhea Are Now Untreatable twitter:description: According to the World Health Organization twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5585fe46cc9bae82/6988d4d222fb8572b1e21e16/gonorrhea.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Some Cases of Gonorrhea Are Now Untreatable Due to Drug Resistance by [Catherine Trautwein](https://time.com/author/catherine-trautwein/) ## Catherine Trautwein Jul 7, 2017 2:35 PM UTC  Conceptual visualization of the gonorrhea bacterium that causes the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea. Conceptual visualization of the gonorrhea bacterium that causes the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea.Getty Images by [Catherine Trautwein](https://time.com/author/catherine-trautwein/) ## Catherine Trautwein Jul 7, 2017 2:35 PM UTC Some cases of the sexually transmitted infection [gonorrhea](http://time.com/4405222/gonorrhea-antibiotic-resistance/) are now untreatable due to resistance to antibiotics, according to the [World Health Organization](http://who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/rtis/amr-gonorrhoea-on-the-rise/en/) (WHO). “Every time we use a new class of antibiotics to treat the infection, the bacteria evolve to resist them,” said [WHO](http://time.com/4793915/what-the-world-health-organizations-new-leader-must-tackle/) medical officer Dr. Teodora Wi in a statement. About 78 million people get [gonorrhea](http://time.com/22179/gonorrhea-rates-cdc/) infections every year, according to the [WHO](http://time.com/4790283/world-health-organization-director-tedros-adhanom-ghebreyesus/), which also notes complications from the STI have a larger impact on women. > [](https://twitter.com/WHO/status/883297955528282112) WHO Director of Antimicrobial Resistance Dr. Marc Sprenger said in a [statement](http://who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2017/Antibiotic-resistant-gonorrhoea/en/) that corralling the infection requires new tools for better prevention, new antibiotics, and in the future, a vaccine against gonorrhea. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4848887/gonorrhea-untreatable-antibiotic-resistance/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4848887/gonorrhea-untreatable-antibiotic-resistance/"},"headline":"Some Cases of Gonorrhea Are Now Untreatable Due to Drug Resistance","datePublished":"2017-07-07T14:35:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:28:15.835Z","description":"According to the World Health Organization","url":"https://time.com/4848887/gonorrhea-untreatable-antibiotic-resistance/","keywords":["medicine","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5585fe46cc9bae82/6988d4d222fb8572b1e21e16/gonorrhea.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Catherine Trautwein","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/catherine-trautwein/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5585fe46cc9bae82/6988d4d222fb8572b1e21e16/gonorrhea.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Gonorrhea","caption":"Gonorrhea","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"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/medicine/","name":"medicine"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4848887/gonorrhea-untreatable-antibiotic-resistance/","name":"Some Cases of Gonorrhea Are Now Untreatable Due to Drug Resistance"}}]}] ```