SURRGing Forward:
Tackling Antibiotic Resistant Gonorrhea

The second video in the series will premiere in April and will focus on how healthcare providers and public health departments can partner with SURRG Wisconsin to test for and identify potential cases of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea. Testing for the presence or absence of gonorrhea is simple and can be done with a NAAT (nucleic acid amplification test). However, most laboratories do not have the capabilities and technology required to determine if a strain of gonorrhea may be resistant to antibiotic treatment. An AST (antibiotic susceptibility test) is required to see if an infection displays antibiotic resistance. Video two explains that if a healthcare provider finds that a patient still tests positive for gonorrhea 14 days after providing adequate treatment (assuming no risk of reinfection), they can contact SURRG Wisconsin for a consult and to receive a kit to collect a culture sample from the patient. At no charge to the clinic or hospital, this culture sample will be rushed to the SURRG Wisconsin lab in Milwaukee for antibiotic susceptibility testing. This second video in the three-video series demonstrates the steps that a gonorrhea culture sample goes through to be checked for susceptibility to several antibiotics.

The third and final video in the series, which is currently in development, will detail the ins and outs of collecting a viable culture sample from a patient who is currently infected with gonorrhea. HCET looks forward to working with SURRG for many years to come on the important issue of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea, which the CDC deems a major public health threat. If you are a public health professional, healthcare provider, or laboratory team member, we encourage you to check out the videos that HCET and SURRG Wisconsin have partnered to create.

To watch the first video in the series, please click HERE:

To read about some successes of the SURRG program, click HERE