Antibiotic Shortage Could Worsen Syphilis Epidemic

A new shortage of a type of penicillin crucial to the fight against syphilis is alarming infectious disease experts, who warn that a protracted scarcity of the drug could worsen the U.S. epidemic of the sexually transmitted infection. The shortage, announced by the drugmaker Pfizer in a letter last month, involves Bicillin L-A, a long-acting injectable antibiotic also known as penicillin G benzathine. The state had seen large increases in the rate of congenital syphilis over the last five years, she said. prevention, testing, and treatment.”He and others criticized Pfizer for inadequate production of the drug given the decades-long rising trajectory of syphilis infections. The post Antibiotic Shortage Could Worsen Syphilis Epidemic appeared first on New York Times.