In the last 60 years, gonorrhea has become resistant to sulfonamides, penicillins, tetracyclines, and ciprofloxacin. Results of a 16-year monitoring program find it is becoming resistant to yet another antibiotic class, fluoroquinolones.
The first fluoroquinolone-resistant gonorrheal bacteria were found in 1991.
By 2003, 70 percent of participating clinics in the study reported them. Because of the spread of fluoroquuinolone resistance, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control no longer recommends using fluoroquinolones and now recommends cephalosporins, which are more expensive and often have to be injected.