Stanford Researchers Tell Development of Potential Vaccine Against Gonorrhea

Stanford University Medical School researchers announced Tuesday that they have developed a potential vaccine against gonorrhea, a contagious venereal disease that afflicts 1 million Americans each year.

The potential vaccine has successfully blocked gonococcal bacteria from infecting human cells in laboratory studies, and scientists said they will begin testing it for safety and effectiveness in human volunteers this year.

The key ingredient is a bio-engineered protein fragment that appears to produce a protective barrier against a broad range of gonorrhea-causing bacteria, said the head of the research team, Dr. Gary Schoolnik, assistant professor of medicine and medical microbiology.

Gonorrhea is easily spread through sexual contact and can produce severe complications, including pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic (outside-the-womb) pregnancy and infertility in women; meningitis; arthritis; and eye infections in children born to mothers with gonorrhea.

In parts of Africa, one-fourth of all women are infertile by age 25 because of gonorrhea, Schoolnik said. Although the disease can be treated with antibiotics, strains of the gonococcal bacterium in some parts of the world have become resistant to most drugs.