Update to CDC’s Sexually Transmitted Diseases Treatment Guidelines, 2010: Oral Cephalosporins No Longer a Recommended Treatment for Gonococcal Infections

Gonorrhea is a reproductive complications in women and can facilitate human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission. Effective treatment is a cornerstone of US gonorrhea control efforts, but treatment of gonorrhea has been complicated by the ability of Neisseria gonorrhoeae to develop anti-microbial resistance. This report, using data from CDC's Gonococcal Isolate Surveillance Project (GISP), describes laboratory evidence of declining cefixime susceptibility among urethral N. gonorrhoeae isolates collected in the United States during 2006-11 and updates CDC's current recommendations for treatment of gonorrhea. CDC no longer recommends cefixime at any dose as a first-line regimen for treatment of gonococcal infections. If cefixime is used as an alternative agent, then the patient should return in 1 week for a test-of-cure at the site of infection.