Kyoto hooker’s nasty case of clap nothing to applaud

Uh oh. It has just been learned that a female sex worker in Kyoto came down with a nasty new strain of a social disease that appears resistant to conventional treatment.



Nikkan Gendai (July 22) reports that a 31-year-old hooker was found to be harboring the nasty bug, a strain of gonorrhea called HO41, in January 2009.

Now they tell us…

The woman had sought treatment after noticing a burning sensation in her urethra during urination. She had also begun excreting pus.

For more information, Nikkan Gendai’s reporter telephoned to the section in the Ministry of Health and Welfare responsible for dealing with TB and other communicable diseases.

“The treatment of choice for gonorrhea is by injection of the antibiotic Cephalosporin,” proclaimed the paper-pusher. “But after the woman underwent a second test she still showed a positive reaction. That was when we determined it was a new treatment-resistant strain. But somehow the patient overcame the infection on her own and tested negative after that. Subsequently the National Institute of Infectious Diseases began recommending use of Spectinomycin for effective treatment. Others may have contracted the same strain, but up to now as far as we know there has only been that one case. There may be others who haven’t developed symptoms yet.”

It is believed the Kyoto sex worker contracted HO41 while receiving oral sex from a customer.

According to physician and popular author Kimihiro Yoneyama, STDs are becoming more pernicious because more physicians are using antibiotics to treat less threatening maladies such as colds. He believes that may have been the case this time. It’s likely the man who passed it to the woman had been treated for a cold but the DNA of the gonorrhea he harbored mutated into a treatment-resistant form and was passed on in his saliva.

“The way this is going, even when new drugs are developed, new drug-resistant pathogens are created, like a game of hide-and-seek,” Yoneyama says. “It’s the same for chlamydia and genital herpes. New strains keep popping up.”

While gonorrhea is unlikely to be transmitted by kissing, it can be transmitted by unsafe sex, including fellatio and cunilingus.

Without use of a condom, the chances of catching something unpleasant are said to be about 30 percent. Forewarned is forearmed, the tabloid cautions its readers. (K.S.)

Source: “Shingata seibyo, tsugi wa nani?,'” Nikkan Gendai (July 22, page 7)