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KIRKSVILLE, MO. --  

Germs that resist antibiotics are becoming more and more common.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), resistant gonorrhea is becoming more prevalent.

The experts say overusing antibiotics is becoming a global problem, and because of this, it’s becoming difficult to treat some germs.

“The more that these bugs get exposed to an antibiotic, they get smart, and they get resistant,” Randall W. Tobler, M.D., from Scotland County Hospital said.

According to the Adair County Health Department’s 2012 annual report, local medical officials treated more than 200 patients for gonorrhea and chlamydia.

Gonorrhea has progressively developed resistance to the antibiotic drugs prescribed to treat it.

“Just last summer, the CDC has come out with recommendations that because the bugs are getting smarter we need to use two antibiotics now,” Dr. Tobler said. “There’s over 800,000 cases a year in America. Fear not, there are still antibiotics to treat, but over the long term, we’re going to have to stay one page ahead of that and develop new antibiotics to kill the germ.”

The CDC said additional contributing factors include incorrect diagnosis of diseases or unnecessary prescriptions.

“The gonorrhea story is just another chapter of the same book,” Dr. Tobler said.  “We’re finding that, because of several reasons, overuse of antibiotics in the human population, some people say the agricultural population either to promote growth in animals, or to keep away infection, we’re finding that some of the common germs that we see in human infections are becoming resistant to multiple antibiotics and sometimes even to the very powerful strong antibiotics, so that everything from tuberculosis to staff and yes even with some sexually transmitted diseases, we may see the day...in fact it is here where we’re seeing super bugs that are resistant to everything and that can be tragic with sometimes fatal results.”

The CDC urges yearly gonorrhea screenings for at-risk sexually active individuals.

Dr. Tobler said an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.