EPIDEMIOLOGICAL TRENDS OF ANTIBIOTIC-RESISTANT NEISSERIA GONORRHEA IN THE EU/EEA/EUROPEAN REGION: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Neisseria gonorrhea is becoming more resistant to available antibiotic treatments. The growing antibiotic resistance of Neisseria gonorrhea in clinical isolates has been observed by different national surveillance systems around the globe and is posing a serious public health risk. The EU/EEA/European region is equally impacted by this developed antibiotic resistance in Neisseria gonorrhea isolates. Hence, this systematic review is focused to uncover the antibiotic resistance patterns of Neisseria gonorrhea across different countries in the EU/EEA/European region. The database PubMed and journal "Eurosurveillance" were used to search for the articles published between 2000-2020. Eight analytical studies that filled the selection criteria were included in the review. In the EU/EEA/European region, susceptibility and resistance of Neisseria gonorrhea toward different antibiotics varied from country to country. Neisseria gonorrhea displayed higher susceptibility toward spectinomycin and azithromycin and also displayed a high level of resistance to ciproflaxin and penicillin. With the antibiotics that are currently effective, there is a higher chance that Neisseria gonorrhea will develop gradual resistance toward those antibiotics in future too. Therefore, continuous surveillance of antibiotic-resistant Neisseria gonorrhea and health promotion awareness programs, and also investments in new effective antibiotic inventions can be to tackle this issue.