Mackay gonorrhoea: STI outbreak to continue for another year

While COVID-19 has barely touched Mackay, the region is still staring down the barrel of another more embarrassing hotspot declaration as lovers are still refusing to ‘glove up’.

Mackay is likely to remain in a declared gonorrhoea outbreak this year after health figures show locals are still getting down and dirty without protection.

The region has been a hotspot since 2019 after concerns the disease was spreading within the community and going undiagnosed.

The numbers, from January to April, released by Queensland Health, show 67 infections in that time within the Mackay Health and Hospital Service compared to 75 from the same period last year.

There has been a gonorrhoea outbreak in Mackay since 2019. Picture: Melanie Whiting

The figures mean Mackay is on track to come close to or match its record-breaking year for sexually transmitted diseases and has had more cases of the sexually transmitted disease than the coronavirus this year.

Queensland Health data shows the Mackay LGA recorded just 22 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic last March.

In 2020, 893 cases of chlamydia and 226 cases of gonorrhoea were recorded across Mackay HHS – the highest number of cases ever recorded for the area.

Health authorities have been unable to explain the disease’s surge in Mackay ever since the hotspot declaration in July 2019.

Gonorrhoea bacteria, pictured here, was one of the most common of STI’s detected again in Mackay.

Mackay HHS, in March, had even set up a free sexual health clinic in Sarina to help deal with the problem by providing more access to testing.

Despite the huge numbers, no case of “super gonorrhoea” has been recorded in Mackay.

A Mackay HHS spokeswoman confirmed there were no plans to remove the declaration any time soon when contacted about the recent figures.