Man contracts new antibiotic-resistant ‘super gonorrhoea’ strain after international trip

Experts warn super gonorrhoea poses a “major global threat” after a man caught the drug-resistant strain of STI while on holiday. Here is what you need to know.

Experts believe a recently discovered new strain of super gonorrhoea poses a “major global threat” after an Austrian man caught the drug-resistant version of the sexually transmitted infection (STI).

In a case report published last month in the journal Eurosurveillance, doctors appear to have found the first gonorrhoea strain since 2018 to feature resistance to drugs.

The man aged in his 50s became infected after having unprotected sex while on holiday in Cambodia in April, according to the case report.

Five days later, he experienced painful urination and urethral discharge before he tested positive to the infection.

A swab showed the new strain he caught was highly resistant to azithromycin, which is typically one of the first antibiotics used to treat gonorrhoea.

Azithromycin has been a mainstay treatment for gonorrhoea.

Lead author of the report, Dr Sonja Pleininger, from the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety, said such strains “poses a major global public health threat”.

“If such strains manage to establish a sustained transmission, many gonorrhoea cases might become untreatable,” she said.

This is the second time a “super gonorrhoea” strain has been detected, after it was found in 2018 in multiple countries.

The term ”super gonorrhoea” refers to a bug that has a high level of resistance to recommended treatments, according to the World Health Organisation.

Doctors now warn the spread of the super strain could makes cases untreatable. Here is what you need to know.

WHAT IS SUPER GONORRHOEA?

Gonorrhoea is the second most common STI in Britain, with almost 60,000 people catching it each year.

In America, about 680,000 get infected each year too.

Symptoms include a thick green or yellow discharge from the vagina or penis, and pain when urinating.

If left untreated, the disease can lead to serious complications including infertility and potentially life-threatening pelvic inflammatory disease in women.

In pregnant women, it can also cause permanent blindness for newborns.

IS IT DANGEROUS?

Most strains are still treatable although super-strains have popped up over the past few years.

Doctors have labelled the new strain as “extensively drug resistant” and is a global public health threat, the report authors note.

While these infections may be isolated cases for the time being, if this or a similar strain ever starts to spread widely, then “many gonorrhoea cases might become untreatable,” they warn.

Cases of a type of gonorrhoea resistant to ceftriaxone have been rising in the Asia-Pacific region.

In February, British health authorities warned they had detected four genetically similar cases in the previous few months.

Over the past few decades, gonorrhoea has been gathering resistance to a number of antibiotics.

Originally published as Man contracts new antibiotic-resistant ‘super gonorrhoea’ strain after international trip