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The world’s first vaccine against gonorrhoea is set to be rolled out in the UK amid a surge in cases of the sexually transmitted infection. Initially the vaccine will not be available to everyone, with a focus on vaccinating gay and bisexual men with a history of multiple sexual partners or an STI. 85,000 cases of gonorrhoea were reported in 2023, the highest number since records began in the year 1918. The rollout of the vaccine is due to begin in August by NHS England, with NHS Scotland also looking into a similar rollout. Though the vaccine is understood to...

A GP has shared his expertise on two common sexually transmitted infections - gonorrhoea and syphilis - as cases of the infections in the UK are at an all-time highUK Health Security Agency's latest figures have shown that cases of gonorrhoea and syphilis are at a record high across the UK. As summer approaches, a lack of education about these common STIs could lead to an even greater increase in cases, warns a doctor. Dr Donald Grant, a GP and senior clinical advisor at The Independent Pharmacy, has offered his expert advice on these two sexually transmitted infections, highlighting the...

Two people in Australia have been diagnosed with 'super gonorrhoea,' an STI resistant to treatment and fulled by sex tourism. The cases are the first for Australia and were reported last month, one in Queensland and one in Western Australia. Both of the cases were discovered after pathology tests and it is believed one was contracted in south-east Asia.

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...

Growing resistance to antibiotics has complicated efforts to rein in common sexually transmitted diseases like gonorrhoea, chlamydia and syphilis, the World Health Organization warned Tuesday as it issued new treatment guidelines. Globally, more than one million people contract a sexually transmitted disease (STD) or infection (STI) every day, WHO said. "Chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis are major public health problems worldwide, affecting millions of peoples' quality of life, causing serious illness and sometimes death," Ian Askew, head of WHO's reproductive health and research division, said in a statement.

A potentially dangerous sexually transmitted disease that infects millions of people each year is growing resistant to drugs and could soon become untreatable, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. The United Nations' health agency is urging governments and doctors to step up surveillance of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea, a bacterial infection that can cause inflammation, infertility, pregnancy complications and, in extreme cases, lead to maternal death. Babies born to mothers with gonorrhea have a 50 percent chance of developing eye infections that can result in blindness. "This organism has basically been developing resistance against every medication we've thrown at it," said Dr....

UK doctors are being told the antibiotic normally used to treat gonorrhoea is no longer effective because the sexually transmitted disease is now largely resistant to it. The Health Protection Agency says we may be heading to a point when the disease is incurable unless new treatments can be found. For now, doctors must stop using the usual treatment cefixime and instead use two more powerful antibiotics. One is a pill and the other a jab. The HPA say the change is necessary because of increasing resistance.

A new strain of the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhoea has become resistant to antibiotics, international research shows. Analysis of the bacterium that causes gonorrhoea found a new variant which is very effective at mutating. Scientists from the Swedish Reference Laboratory warn that the infection could now become a global threat to public health. New drugs to delay the spread of the infection are needed, experts say. The first case of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhoea was found in Japan. By analysing this new strain of neisseria gonorrhoea, called H041, researchers identified the genetic mutations responsible for the new strain's extreme resistance to all...

A quarter of UK sex health clinics cannot treat patients needing urgent help within the recommended 48 hours, the BBC's Panorama programme has found. The programme contacted 269 clinics and found that, in some cases, patients could wait weeks to be seen. Waiting times have grown so much that one clinic was taking bookings nine weeks in advance. The Department of Health said more needed to be done, and it was investing £300m over the next three years. One of the most senior sexual health clinicians in the country, Professor George Kinghorn, told Panorama that the situation amounted to a...