Man has 'world's worst' super-gonorrhoea

waweru kiarie

March 29, 2018 3:55 PM

The infection is spread by unprotected vaginal, oral and anal sex.

A man in the UK has caught the worlds "worst-ever" case of super-gonorrhoea.

He had a regular partner in the UK, but picked up the superbug after a sexual encounter with a woman in South East Asia.

Public Health England says it is the first time the infection cannot be cured with first choice antibiotics.

Health officials are now tracing any other sexual partners of the man, who has not been identified, in an attempt to contain the infection's spread.

Antibiotics

He picked up the infection earlier in the year. The main antibiotic treatment - a combination of azithromycin and ceftriaxone - has failed to treat the disease.

Dr Gwenda Hughes, from Public Health England, said: "This is the first time a case has displayed such high-level resistance to both of these drugs and to most other commonly used antibiotics."

Discussions with the World Health Organization and the European Centres for Disease Control agree this is a world first. The disease is caused by the bacterium called Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

Pregnancy

Of those infected, about one in 10 heterosexual men and more than three-quarters of women, and gay men, have no easily recognisable symptoms.

But symptoms can include a thick green or yellow discharge from sexual organs, pain when urinating and bleeding between periods.

Untreated infection can lead to infertility, pelvic inflammatory disease and can be passed on to a child during pregnancy.

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