Dear Colleagues,

The prevalence of infections caused by Neisseria gonorrhoeae is rising globally. Coupled with this rise, the ever-present possibility that gonococcal infections will be untreatable in the future has resulted in increased attention by public health agencies worldwide to diagnose infections quickly and to ensure that patients are treated with effective antibiotics.

Over the past 70 years, different antibiotics have been introduced to treat gonococcal infections. N. gonorrhoeae has steadily developed an array of resistance mechanisms to each antibiotic. This has resulted in the successive withdrawal of older antibiotics when resistance in gonococcal populations (>5 percent resistant) precludes their effective use. Choices for effective treatment of gonococcal infections are now severely limited. Presently, therapy with an injectable third-generation cephaloporin coupled with azithromycin is the globally-recommended treatment for uncomplicated gonococcal infections. Resistance to both of these antibiotics has been reported, along with treatment failure using dual therapy.

This Special Issue will seek to highlight the most recent information and advances on antimicrobial-resistant N. gonorrhoeae. This issue will highlight ways to to combat drug resistance through the development and validation of simple, inexpensive, and rapid diagnostics (point-of-care tests) for gonorrhea and its antimicrobial resistance. We will profile regions implementing the Gonococcal Antimicrobial Surveillance Programs (GASP) which are establish local and regional antimicrobial resistance profiles to advise on treatment regimens which reflect local conditions. This issue will also highlight reports on the molecular epidemiology of resistant N. gonorrhoeae isolates to ascertain the dispersal of common resistant strains and the introduction of new phenotypes. In this Special Issue, we hope to highlight advances that lead to a better understanding of mechanisms of AMR in N. gonorrhoeae as well as the evaluation of new antimicrobial agents or antimicrobial combinations.

This Special Issue should serve to highlight the most recent advances in gonococcal AMR topics, including reports from middle and low income countries seeking to better understand the public health issues posed by resistant N. Gonorrhoeae.

Prof. Jo-Anne R. Dillon
Dr. Sidharath Dev Thakur
Guest Editors

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• Neisseria gonorrhoeae
• antimicrobial susceptibility
• molecular epidemiology
• mechanisms of resistance
• molecular AMR tests
• point-of-care tests
• new AMS technologies, new antimicrobials