A “super strain” of gonorrhoea has broken out in the UK and is now spreading among gay and bi men, causing “huge concern” among doctors. In September, a national alert was raised when in Northern England the drug resistant strain of the STI was discovered. This has now spread to West Midlands, London and southern England. It is feared the strain could be untreatable as it is resistant to the azithromycin drug, and as regular strains of gonorrhoea disproportionately affect gay and bi men, health professionals in the UK are worried about the spread to this community. Peter Greenhouse, a sexual health consultant from Bristol, told BBC News, “We’ve been worried it would spread to men who have sex with men. “The problem is [they] tend to spread infections a lot faster simply as they change partners more quickly.” More than three-quarters of gay and bisexual men appear to have no symptoms of the disease and are more likely to have gonorrhoea in their throats, where further resistance can develop. Public Health England has acknowledged that measures to contain the outbreak have had “limited success”.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 20th April 2016 - 4:48pm