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In another setback, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued revised guidelines for treating a sexually transmitted bacteria on Thursday.

The CDC is urging doctors to stop using cefixime, marketed under the brand name Suprax by Lupin Ltd, a key antibiotic to treat routine cases of gonorrhea.

Strains of gonorrhea that are resistant to Suprax have increased globally and cefixime has become less effective.

The government agency now recommends that the injectable antibiotic ceftriaxone, in combination with one of two oral antibiotics: azithromycin or doxycycline, be used to treat gonorrhea.

The revised guidelines published in the Aug. 10 issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Gail Bolan, director of the CDC's Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention division, said the change in antibiotic treatment guidelines we are making today is a critical pre-emptive strike to preserve the last effective treatment option.

"This will not solve the problem of drug-resistant gonorrhea once and for all, but it may buy us time to allow researchers and drug developers to develop new treatments," Bolan told reporters in a telephone briefing, according to Reuters.

Gonorrhea can increase the risk of contracting and transmitting HIV and if left untreated, it can result in severe reproductive health consequences including chronic pelvic pain, potentially life-threatening ectopic pregnancy and infertility.

"We are very concerned about the possibility of the potential for untreatable gonorrhea," said Dr. Robert Kirkcaldy, a medical epidemiologist with the CDC's Division of STD Prevention. "Facing this threat of drug resistance, the CDC is taking the critical step to preserve the last remaining drug that we know to be effective. We're hoping that the actions taken now will prevent that from becoming a reality."

CDC estimates that, annually, more than 700,000 people in the United States get new gonorrhea infections and less than half of these infections are reported to CDC. In 2010, 309,341 cases of gonorrhea were reported to CDC.

Any sexually active person can be infected with gonorrhea. It is a very common STD. In the United States, the highest reported rates of infection are among sexually active teenagers, young adults, and African Americans. Latex condoms, when used consistently and correctly, can reduce the risk of getting or giving gonorrhea. The most certain way to avoid gonorrhea is to not have sex or to be in a long-term, mutually monogamous relationship with a partner who has been tested and is known to be uninfected.