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Using rapid point-of-care tests to inform antibiotic choice to mitigate drug resistance in gonorrhoea
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View Affiliations Hide AffiliationsCarolin Vegvaric.vegvari imperial.ac.uk
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Citation style for this article: . Using rapid point-of-care tests to inform antibiotic choice to mitigate drug resistance in gonorrhoea. Euro Surveill. 2020;25(43):pii=1900210. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.43.1900210 Received: 27 Mar 2019; Accepted: 01 May 2020
Abstract
The first cases of extensively drug resistant gonorrhoea were recorded in the United Kingdom in 2018. There is a public health need for strategies on how to deploy existing and novel antibiotics to minimise the risk of resistance development. As rapid point-of-care tests (POCTs) to predict susceptibility are coming to clinical use, coupling the introduction of an antibiotic with diagnostics that can slow resistance emergence may offer a novel paradigm for maximising antibiotic benefits. Gepotidacin is a novel antibiotic with known resistance and resistance-predisposing mutations. In particular, a mutation that confers resistance to ciprofloxacin acts as the ‘stepping-stone’ mutation to gepotidacin resistance.
To investigate how POCTs detecting Neisseria gonorrhoeae resistance mutations for ciprofloxacin and gepotidacin can be used to minimise the risk of resistance development to gepotidacin.
We use individual-based stochastic simulations to formally investigate the aim.
The level of testing needed to reduce the risk of resistance development depends on the mutation rate under treatment and the prevalence of stepping-stone mutations. A POCT is most effective if the mutation rate under antibiotic treatment is no more than two orders of magnitude above the mutation rate without treatment and the prevalence of stepping-stone mutations is 1–13%.
Mutation frequencies and rates should be considered when estimating the POCT usage required to reduce the risk of resistance development in a given population. Molecular POCTs for resistance mutations and stepping-stone mutations to resistance are likely to become important tools in antibiotic stewardship.
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