LV sees cases of STDs resistant to antibiotics

Thursday, March 11, 2004 | 8:38 a.m.

Las Vegas has a significant number of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea cases, according to a nationwide study of the sexually transmitted disease.

Of roughly 150 gonorrhea cases reported in Las Vegas a month, about one in 25 tested in a federal study has been a strain resistant to two common antibiotics: Cipro and Levaqual.

That is considered high for Las Vegas' population, but Clark County Health District officials say that number is inflated by a large number of visitors from California, Hawaii and Asia, where doctors rely heavily on those drugs.

The Health District uses an injection antibiotic called rocephin, which has been proven to be not only effective in curing gonorrhea, but also is fast-acting, Public Health Nurse Manager Mary Ellen Harrell said. That has limited the spread of the antibiotic-resistant strain in Southern Nevada.

"We see this in California, Hawaii and Southeast Asia because it is easier to prescribe a pill than give a shot," Harrell said. "What we've seen is that people come here from those places and have a regular sex partner who lives in Honolulu or Los Angeles who has picked up the resistant form of the disease and passed it on to them."

The Las Vegas Valley for two years has been part of a national study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to track the spread of gonorrhea. It requires the Health District to send samples from the first 25 men who test positive each month to the CDC in Atlanta, where they are further tested.

"We are having about one antibiotic-resistant case a month, which is considered high for an area with our population," Harrell said. "What this means is that the CDC will enhance our area of surveillance. But the increased number of specimens has not yet been determined."

Since Las Vegas joined the national study, the Health District has sent letters to area doctors and hospitals cautioning them against using Cipro on patients whom they suspect have gonorrhea.

They have been instructed instead to give their patients a shot of rocephin or send them to the district's Sexually Transmitted Disease Clinic for further examination and, if necessary, a rocephin treatment, she said.

The concern over the antibiotic-resistant form of gonorrhea has been heightened by reports this week that it has gained a foothold in Massachusetts.

Experts say the drug-resistant bacteria is the same that first appeared on the West Coast four years ago. CDC investigators said the Massachusetts outbreak appears to be more severe than cases reported in Seattle, Las Vegas, Chicago, Dallas, and Philadelphia.

Incidents of gonorrhea locally have remained stable in recent years even though the population has risen sharply. In 2001 an average of 153 cases per month were recorded in Clark County. By comparison, there were 155 cases of gonorrhea last month locally and 141 in January, the health district said.

If left untreated, gonorrhea can lead to infertility, arthritis, inflammation of the heart and a weakened immune system.

The Associated Press

contributed to this story.