The excessive use of antibiotics during the Covid-19 pandemic could be fueling a spike in a highly drug-resistant STI – “super gonorrhea” – the World Health Organization has warned amid a recent uptick in the disease.
While no antibiotic has been found to be effective in fighting off the coronavirus, the drugs were heavily administered in the early stages of the pandemic, with one Cambridge study showing that more than 70 percent of Covid-19 patients in the US received them between March and April. Though they are also used to prevent “co-infections” in hospital settings, the researchers found the drugs were still overused, reporting a “significant mismatch” between bacterial co-infections and patients receiving antibiotics.