Urethritis and antimicrobial resistance

Abstract

Urethritis is a clinical syndrome which is characterized by mucopurulent or purulent urethral discharge with or without dysuria, due to an increased number of polymorphonuclear leukocytes in the anterior urethra. Antimicrobial therapy and preventive measures are essential in the management of bacterial urethritis. However, these drugs may cause antimicrobial resistance, resulting in unsuccessful treatment and complications of urethritis. Resistance of Neisseria gonorrhoeae to antibiotics is well known for decades, and in recent years there are more cases of resistance of Chlamydia trachomatis and Mycoplasma genitalium to different antibiotics. There is a danger that in the future certain strains of N. gonorrhoeae will be resistant to all available antimicrobial agents, unless new antibiotics to which resistance will not develop rapidly or an effective vaccine are developed.