Health leaders have raised the alarm over a rise in cases of drug-resistant gonorrhea. Cases of the sexually transmitted disease (STD) have soared and are now at their highest level since records began in 1918.
The latest figures for England show that 85,223 cases of gonorrhoea will be diagnosed in 2023. As well as a rise in cases of the STI, health officials have also recorded a rise in treatment-resistant gonorrhoea.
Although the infection is usually easy to treat, some strains are resistant to commonly used antibiotics and more difficult to treat. The first-line treatment in England is an antibiotic called ceftriaxone, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
New data from the UKHSA, published on medRxiv, highlights the growing number of drug-resistant cases in recent years. Only nine ceftriaxone-resistant gonorrhoea infections were reported in England between 2015 and the end of 2021.
This rose to 15 cases detected in England between June 2022 and May 2024, including five cases that were “extensively drug-resistant”, meaning they did not respond to both first- and second-line treatment options and other antibiotics. All of the detected drug-resistant cases were among heterosexual people, mostly in their 20s, the article said.
Most of them had contracted the infection abroad. Dr Helen Fifer, consultant microbiologist at UKHSA, said: “Gonorrhoea is becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics, raising the risk that it could become untreatable in the future. Untreated gonorrhoea can lead to serious health problems including pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility.”
“Condoms are the best defense, but if you have not used a condom with a new or casual partner, get tested to detect the infection and prevent further transmission.”
Professor Matt Phillips, Chair of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH), added: “The rise of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhoea infections in England is a worrying trend that needs to be addressed with immediate action. Antibiotic resistance in STIs is an increasing threat to public health, causing physical and psychological harm and placing additional demands on other parts of the NHS.
“BASHH, together with industry partners, has repeatedly called for a Sexual Health Strategy for England. This must be a priority if our expert sexual health workers are to respond effectively to these growing and changing sexual health needs.”