Health officials have issued a warning over a new strain of super gonorrhoea that is resistant to two crucial antibiotics – including a last-ditch resort. In the first recorded case worldwide, an unidentified English man – who was having regular sex with a woman in the UK – caught the STI from another woman during his travels to south-east Asia earlier this year. Public Health England revealed his gonorrhoea was resistant to ceftriaxone and azithromycin – the two drugs that the World Health Organization recommends to be given to patients with the STI.
The Government-run agency has issued an alert regarding the possible spread of the bug – which proved resistant to recommended treatment. A PHE report read: ‘This is the first global report of high-level azithromycin resistant N. gonorrhoea which is also resistant to ceftriaxone.’ It added that it has now ‘formed an incident management team’ to coordinate the investigation and contain the spread of the superbug.

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